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A new analysis shows that the race between online discount services Groupon, Living Social, and others is less about what they're offering or even how they're offering it and more about where they're prospecting.

Groupon is burning through cash. In January, it raised about $950 million; by March, it had just $209 million left

Let's begin with the biggest news of the day: Groupon 's CEO makes 575 times what Steve Jobs makes as chief exec at Apple.

Facebook has only seen 50 million Groups created after six months. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has called grouping friends "the biggest problem in social networking." This is the secret sauce in Deals

After dangling a reported $6 billion offer in front of daily deal site Groupon (which it ultimately rejected), Google is pressing on with its own service. Today Google unveiled Offers , a new feature that will allow local businesses to show off deep discounts to consumers. Seemingly a direct competitor to Groupon and Living Social, Offers boasts of discounts of 50% off or more

"What our clients are struggling with is: How big a deal are social media and location-based services, and how much of it is just sound and fury?" says a senior VP of Applied Predictive Technologies, which runs data analytics for Starbucks and Subway. "You've got your Groupon and Living Social , and your Foursquare and Facebook Places," says Jonathan Marek. "What our clients are struggling with is: How big a deal are social media and location-based services, and how much of it is just sound and fury?" That's the question on the mind of most every marketer and retailer--and Marek might finally have an answer