After failing to buy Groupon and lagging behind in the oddly burgeoning market for online deals, Google launched its own online coupon service, Offers, in the District and four other cities yesterday. The first deal? Three bucks for $6 worth of food at Adams Morgan’s Amsterdam Falafel, all but assuring a human crush of monumental proportions come the weekend.

Google’s taking something of a risk jumping into online coupons, what with Groupon’s recent rescheduling of its initial IPO and revenue losses for both Groupon and LivingSocial in August. Admittedly, Google’s certainly not short on cash these days — it has close to $40 billion on hand — so sinking a few billion into what could well be a losing venture in a saturated market won’t bring the company crashing down.

But more importantly, Google should tread carefully — the District, after all, is LivingSocial territory. Beyond the fact that two of the company’s executives are locals — CEO and co-founder Tim O’Shaughnessy went to Georgetown, while Eddie Frederick, president and co-founder, went to Maryland — LivingSocial recently leased a seven-floor building in Penn Quarter for its 100 to 150 employees. The District has officially become a company town when it comes to the online coupon business. (Admittedly, I often question some of the deals. I mean, how much botox can one person need?)

So take your fancy algorithms and ability to dominate just about every facet of my online life back to Silicon Valley, Google. You’ve been warned.