Web App of the Week: Groupon

Posted 11/12/2009 at 2:15pm | by David Murphy

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If war movies, zombies hordes, or stormtroopers have taught us anything, it's that there's power to be had in numbers-well, maybe not the stormstroopers. Regardless, a number of Web apps take advantage of this philosophy to offer increased functionality, awesome services, or cheap deals for those who are part of a herd. Kickstarter, for example, allows groups of people to team up and pledge funding for a number of independent projects. If a project meets its funding goal, then everyone who pledge an amount has to pay. If not, nobody pays a dime.

But you don't want to pay money. No, you want to save money. For that, turn to a Web site called Groupon. This community-driven site is like a combination of Costco (or your favorite local warehouse for purchasing oversized amounts of products), Kickstarter, and Woot. Instead of offering to pledge money, you're offering to purchase a product at lesser, group-discount rate. If enough people agree to buy, then everyone's commitments go through to their credit cards. If not, your hard-earned money stays right where it is.

Cool as it sounds, the service's biggest drawback is that it's designed with a city-based focus in mind. Thus, if you don't actually live in one of the major cities where, say, the restaurant or spa discount would apply... you're out of luck. On the plus side, there are more than 30 major cities to choose from, so odds are good that you'll have a good shot at hitting it big on one of the site's daily deals. Integrated social networking functionality allows you to easily share deals with your friends-who knows, maybe you'll be able to convince them to pony up and bring you one step closer to your huge discount.

Every Thursday, Maximum PC picks a new Web App as its favorite of the week. Have a Web App that you can't live without? Twitter David Murphy @acererak with your latest suggestions.