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Editor’s note: Guest contributor Semil Shah is an entrepreneur interested in digital media, consumer internet, and social networks. He is based in Palo Alto and you can follow him on twitter @semilshah . While the tech world is buzzing about the launch and implications of Google’s new social network, Google+ , it’s worth noting that Google isn’t just in a war with Facebook , it’s at war with multiple companies across multiple industries. In fact, Google is fighting a multi-front war with a host of tech giants for control over some of the most valuable pieces of real estate in technology. Whether it’s social, mobile, browsing, local, enterprise, or even search, Google is being attacked from all angles.  And make no mistake about it, they are fighting back and fighting back, hard. Entrepreneur-turned-venture capitalist  Ben Horowitz laid the groundwork for this in his post Peacetime CEO / Wartime CEO , saying Larry Page “seems to have determined that Google is moving into war and he ...

Google launched its Groupon-killer, "Offers," in Portland, Oregon , about a month ago. And now it's gearing up to launch in San Francisco and New York . Could Offers become a massive new revenue stream for Google--the "second huge growth engine" that Google has long searched for in vain? Could Google's entry into the deals business clobber Groupon and other deal providers like Living Social? To begin to answer these questions, we spoke to representatives of merchants who have signed on to offer Google Offers in New York. We also spoke with Google's Eric Rosenblum, the lead engineer on Offers, and Google spokesperson Nate Tyler. And it turns out that Google Offers does have a few key advantages over other deal providers that could shake up the deals industry and force Groupon, at least, to change the terms of its deals . In other words, if Google makes a big commitment to the deals business--a big if--its entry into the market could hurt the businesses ...