Nate Tyler, a Google spokesman, stated that the company is "communicating with small businesses to enlist their support and participation in a test of a prepaid offers/vouchers program.
This initiative is part of an ongoing effort at Google to make new products … that connect businesses with customers in new ways.
[8] On April 21, 2011, via Google Places Facebook page, it was announced that "Offers BETA is coming", and provided a link to a signup page listing a few select cities, with the first beta city being Portland, Oregon.
[9][10] On May 26, 2011, the service was officially launched; the first offer was on June 1, for Floyd's Coffee Shop in Portland.
They save the offer to their Google Account from the Search ad and then redeem in-store or online.