Marissa Mayer, Vice President of Search Product and User Experience at Google, is reported to be interested in Google’s purchasing internet coupon star Groupon. In Kara Swisher’s ‘All Things D’ report http://read.bi/bgRQwy the price tag is said to be well above $ 3 billion. Reportedly Groupon brings in revenue of over $ 50 million per month.

I think Groupon www.groupon.com is a terrific concept and it takes the notion of using the ‘crowd’ or more properly crowd-buying to a new level. In fact if you want to watch a pretty funny video taking a tour of Groupon’s office, look here http://read.bi/gHqosU. I’ve seen CEO Andrew Mason talk before and he strikes a good balance between a smart guy with a good idea and someone that understands how to grow a good business. This combination is not as common as one would think.

Google has taken its lumps lately with its deployment of Street View and the privacy issues centered around its use in Europe in particular (if you have not used Street view http://bit.ly/10EwIU you should take a look as it is both cool and creepy). Buying Groupon would be a very smart move for Google where more recently it has been reported that Google is giving its employees a 10% raise and $ 1,000 bonus to keep them from defecting to rival Facebook.

That’s right Google and Facebook are now rivals. I wonder if watching them duke it out will be fun.

Enjoy your turkey. And as New York Met fan I sincerely hope they did not just hire one as manager.