jryu:

Most interestingly, neither of Gilt nor Groupon uses SEO to push their offers. In fact, traditional product offer SEO would kill their businesses. One of the reasons that the merchants can offer lower prices via these services is that the prices will not appear in Google searches and therefore…

When you hear about SEO with regards to group buying/private sales, the popular story is about how these new business models judo flip the “competing on SEO as a user acquisition” strategy.  But as suggested above, for merchants, the more compelling story and true benefit is what these new properties allow them to do—  price discrimination (while protecting their brand).  Remember when Amazon tried and people raised hell?  Gilt gives merchants a wrapper that allows them to get away with it.

To say it one way, Google is working towards helping to establish the Law of One Price, while Gilt et al. are trying to break it by using various tactics.

Rafer sez:
Google working towards a Law of One Price, and others’ attempts to break it, is exactly the right reference. Because of the Doubleclick exchange, advertising is next. Planned inefficiency, which will work a lot better than the last hundred years of accidentally inefficient advertising, is going to make a lot of money.