WebProNews

Several domain names with the words 'Google' and 'coupon' have appeared on Google's name servers, which could indicate a holiday marketing effort for its advertisers. Resource Shelf spotted a number of coupon-related domains arriving at Google. Names like CouponGoogle.com and GoogleCoupon.net don't point to any active pages yet.

The domains could be part of a marketing push for Google and its advertisers just as the holiday shopping season approaches. If so, we would expect to see a couple of things happen.

Google will have to move quickly to get the fullest effect from such a promotion. We're more than halfway through September. That may sound early, but it's only six weeks from the beginning of November, when retailers tend to swap Halloween decorations for Christmas ones.

It makes sense that a coupon effort would be coupled with Google Checkout, the company's online payment service. Google-backed coupons as part of a merchant promotion would be nicely suited for a merchant's AdWords campaign.

A coupon effort might also focus on the brick and mortar market, to complement Google's get-the-word-out campaign with local businesses. Small businesses without an e-commerce site could place coupons with their listings on Google Maps, point people to them with an AdWords listing, and track conversions as people bring in those coupons.