With its recent acquisition of The Dealmap, a website that aggregates location-specific daily deals, Google continues to affirm its presence in an increasingly competitive market.

Groupon, meanwhile is feeling the heat from all angles with competitors like LivingSocial, Dealfind.com, and all the other Groupon like clones.  I really can’t help but feel that Google is snickering behind such harmless remarks like: “We are impressed with what The Dealmap team has accomplished and excited to welcome them to Google” and “We’ve been thrilled with the early success of our commerce offerings.” Reading between the lines, I just love to imagine that what they’re really saying is, “Yeah, we’re lookin’ at you, Groupon.”

We all know, of course, that Groupon turned down Google’s generous buy-out offer last year of $6 billion (that’s million, but with a “B”), after which the Internet Titan shrugged and launched its own Googlafied daily deals service dubbed Google Offers.

The Google Offers service has gone on to expand from Portland to New York, from New York, to San Fran, and intends soon to branch out to Austin, Boston, Denver, Seattle, and D.C., absorbing various Groupon clones in its passing like so many innocent beads of dew, its latest morsel: The Dealmap.

The Dealmap, naturally, is “thrilled” to be invited under Google’s far-reaching umbrella of protection and resources, though neither Dealmap nor Google has disclosed the final digits on the price tag.