Let us go back in time, and re-print my post from exactly one month ago:

Dear Groupon, Google has more money than you do.

Lots more.
And they will copy everything you do.
And offer it for less.
And give away more.
Cause they're open.
Oh, and evil.
Oh, and they will poach your staff:

"In a blog it just posted, Groupon said its recently hired COO, Margo Georgiadis, “has decided to return to Google (her former employer) in a new role as President, Americas.”

Wonder how open she'll be with what she learned? Say, ever see the end of Braveheart? Yeah, Google's the nasty foul old guy who gets you disemboweled. Internet monopolies are evil.

Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Today, from Bloomberg

Groupon Inc. sued two former sales managers who it claims took confidential trade secrets with them when they quit the Internet coupon company to join a competing venture run by Google Inc. (GOOG)

Michael Nolan, who worked for Groupon for two years, and Brian Hanna, who joined the Chicago-based company in January, each left last month to join Google Offers, according to a civil complaint filed today in an Illinois court. Google, based in Mountain View, California, isn’t named in the suit.

“In their new positions with Google Offers and/or Google, Hanna and Nolan will provide the same or similar services as they provided at Groupon,” requiring them “to employ confidential and proprietary information that they learned while employed at Groupon,” according to the complaint.

Monopoly profits from one market channeled to destroy innovation in another market. And the small minds talk about "open".

A quick word to you, Mr and Ms Restauranteur - Small Business Owner - Shopkeeper, before I power down for the night. Very soon, some young gun is gonna knock on your door.

He will work for Google. Or Groupon. Or LivingSocial.

He (or she) will want to add your business and all its details to their growing database. They will seek to sell you on the benefits of their service, on group buying, social buying, mobile shopping. They will promise you the world. And move on to the next stop.

For now, they need you more than you need them.You're a mere cog in a war for capitalization and/or acquisition and/or IPO. A few bits in an infinitely scalable database of businesses, search strings and (non) real-time recommendations.

Don't give it away for free.

Oh, and when they do stop by, I want you to post every detail about them and their interaction with you on the web. Preferably here, on my site. Thanks.

[Week ending 4 December 2010]

Dear Lord,

Everyone, even on my staff, wants an iPhone. Android should be Windows Phone. Google gives away free apps. iPad is selling by the millions. Facebook is making Bing irrelevant. Games are all moving to the cloud. Google Chrome will soon power a low-cost netbook. IT managers are making decisions now based on what their users want, not what we tell them.

Please, dear lord. At least give me copy-and-paste for the Windows Phone for Christmas.

Signed,

Steve Ballmer

Dear Irrational Exuberance,

Stay alive! No matter what happens. I will find you!

Signed,

Groupon

Yes, Virginia,

I am Santa Claus.

Signed,

Steve Jobs

Dear budding entrepreneur,

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

Signed,

Occupant

Sand Hill Road

Dear Bloomberg Business Week,

Fuck if I understand it. But what can I say. The old people just can't get enough of us.

Signed,

Zynga

Dear Cafeteria Mother,

I specifically asked for pinto beans on my burrito at lunch yesterday. Not black beans. I could have you fired. Don't make this mistake again. And, yes, I know where you live.

Signed,

Google employee # 16,492

Dear CEO of Research in Motion,

I understand you recently purchased a Swedish design firm. Congratulations in advance! The combination of Canadian engineers and Swedish designers is certain to break the previous mark for highest number of business meetings.

Signed,

Guinness Book of World Records

Dear Amazon, can you tell me how you are re-making your company in light of the smartphone? Yes, you may tell me anonymously, as long as you realize I may print everything you say (excepting any identifying characteristics of you).

The smartphone is the computer. Amazon is a PC-era company. The smartphone is with us always, in real-time. It merges the virtual (online) with the physical (off-line). It is location-based, providing us with Groupons and check-ins based on our current location. It is real-time, providing us with coupons and savings and offers and specials, based on time.

We increasingly rely upon our social network -- which is different than an aggregation of anonymous tipsters -- for purchasing decisions. We have the ability to scan barcodes to learn more about a product, and find a better price. We have a screen with us always, though it is quite small.

Amazon sells smartphones. Will sell apps. Offers a mobile-optimized webpage, if such a thing can exist for the world's largest retailer. Has offered a nifty service that lets us take a picture of an item and then Amazon looks to see if they can offer us one (like, my mother-in-law's 1960s glassware). The company offers digital media content for sale, including music, books and videos.

But none of these are world-changing. None decpict a larger, complete vision. None suggest an ability to compete with Google's offline-online market entries, or Facebook, or Foursquare, or Groupon. I see nothing that suggests Amazon has even begun to accept that the world, including America, will soon shift from PCs to smartphones and this shift will *fundamentally* alter how we shop; just as Amazon did last century.

Anyone?

Does this look like 'the world's biggest online retailer' to you?

Amazon says they "strive to become Earth's most customer-centric company, we constantly look for new ways to innovate."

There are no Amazon stores. The company exists in the cloud. As more of use use smartphones, and as we transition from PC to smartphone, how will Amazon remain customer-centric? Innovative? Or, do they believe they can merely port their PC empire to the smartphone?

In my TECHNOLOGY RANKINGS, Groupon scores a stellar '30'. That pretty much assures long-term success (at least during this decade of the smartphone wars).

Not that Groupon needs my affirmation. The company hit the sweet spot of business model meets instant tipping point of technology and need and desire and capability. So much so that probably the biggest effort facing Groupon now is building thesmelves fast enough to hold off all the counterfeiters.

Forbes profiles the company that is leveraging the real-time social mobile web as well as just about anybody:

Unlike so many dot-com rockets, Groupon is a real business. Occupying 85,000 square feet inside a rehabbed eight-story former Montgomery Ward warehouse in Chicago's River North neighborhood, the company is on track to pass $500 million in revenue this year, according to a report Morgan Stanley ( MS - news - people ) put together to win some underwriting business. No technology stalwart--including Ebay, Amazon.com ( AMZN - news - people ), Yahoo ( YHOO - news - people ), AOL and Google--grew that big that fast. At just 17 months old this April Groupon boasted a $1.35 billion valuation when it raised $135 million, the biggest chunk of it from Digital Sky Technologies, the curious Moscow investment fund behind Facebook and Zynga. (Mason will not disclose his stake, which he says is less than 50%.) The only company to reach a $1 billion valuation faster was YouTube (now part of Google), founded in 2005 and still waiting to turn its first profit. Groupon broke into the black just seven months after inception.

*Note: I'm considering abandoning my Technology Rankings and just basing the future success of a technology company based on whether or not some unnamed Russian oligarch is an early major investor. Opulence? I has it.

Maybe at least in this instance, I'm more like a man. Because I don't get Groupon at all. Or maybe it's because, and I don't mean to be snobbish about this, I don't need to use coupons.

We make a pretty good living. Better than most, I admit. Even still, it's not only about the money that I'm annoyed with Groupon. It's all these sites and services and SMS's that keep pushing out all these DEALS OF THE DAY on my smartphone.

Everything you need to know about me, where I am, what I'm looking for, is right there on my smartphone. Just give me your best price. No coupons, no special deals, no memberships. Here's my money. I want your product. Just don't take advantage of me.

This seems like it ought to be really simple.