Two days ago we reported that Google had finally launched its Google Offers daily deals service in Portland, Oregon. But Google isn’t the only big player on the Internet that is focusing on daily deals as a new income channel.

In a very stealthy way Amazon has launched its own service as well. For now, Amazon Local (such is the name of the service) is available only in Boise, Idaho and it is unclear what the expansion plans for this venture are since no other cities are listed. The site, however, allows users to introduce their Zip code and receive an e-mail notification once the service becomes available in their area.

As with Google Offers, Amazon Local’s design is very attractive and quite minimalistic in the information it provides. For starters, there’s no way to visit past deals, and for now only one deal at a time is available. Besides, deals last several days, although that will probably change soon.

One particular detail that is barely noticeable at the bottom of every deal is a little legend that says “Sold by LivingSocial”. It‘s worth noting that Amazon is one of LivingSocial’s largest investors, and that this is not the first time both companies work together. In January this year the daily deals site sold over 1.1 million $10 off in $20 Amazon gift cards.  Does this mean that Amazon Local is an aggregator? Not exactly. First of all, the deal published at Amazon (Today: “52% Off Single or Group Go Kart Racing”) is not available in Boise’s LivingSocial. Second, when you check the “Business” section on the site’s footer, there’s a long very engaging sales pitch that appeals to business owners throughout the US to start offering deals on the site. However, the FAQ section also claims that every now and then, other sites will source their deals through Amazon Local.

This could be the beginning of a new group-buying-site-meets-aggregators business model on which a site offers its own deals and also features discounts from other sites? In every case, however, the payment is done in site. Facebook Deals works in somewhat the same way, featuring deals from sites such as KGB deals and Zozi.com as well as deals of its own. In Facebook’s case, however, deals are available both on the social network’s deals section and in the sites that provided the daily deals.

This seems to be a far more interesting question than if either Facebook, Amazon or even Google will grow enough to beat Groupon at its own game.

UPDATE (07/21/2011): Amazon Local has finally expanded outside of Boise and reached eight new cities in the Seattle and Los Angeles metropolitan areas. Besides, the site now includes several deals per city which are presented as “Nearby deals” at the bottom of each discount. As usual, all deals are (for now) provided by LivingSocial and are presented in a minimalistic way, with little descriptions and only one picture that seems extracted from a photo bank rather than taken for each deal in particular. However, a Bing map was added where the deal’s location is displayed.

It is worth noting a nice subtle detail introduced by the site designers. The bottom of the background image (a hand-drawn picture of a town in front of a city) changes in every location. In Long Beach, for example, trees are replaced with palms, in Los Angeles the Hollywood sign appears in a mountain at the left and in Seattle the Space Needle is included in the city’s skyline.

NEW UPDATE (08/03/2011): AmazonLocal is expanding fast. Today the site was launched in Chicago and, while it still offers deals by LivingSocial in all of its locations, rumor has it the company is hiring a huge sales force, which will have the site competing head to head with Groupon but, especially, with its own partner LivingSocial.

Do you think more Internet giants will pursue their own daily deals sites? Please leave your thoughts and opinions in the comment section.