• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, May 20, 2011

Location-based service Loopt in March began pushing out alerts for deeply discounted goods and services nearby to keep up with daily deal services like Groupon. But now the company is teaming up with Groupon to add its stream of real-time deals to Loopt's own “Reward Alerts’ program for users in the Chicago area.

Instant deals from the newly launched Groupon Now service will appear on place pages within Loopt application for the iPhone and Android devices. Users will receive a once-a-day deal alerts that they can use existing Loopt features to share with friends to take advantage of. "If you fire up Loopt and scroll through places around you, you’ll also start seeing Groupon Now! icons in the mix. Click, buy the deal through your existing Groupon account, and you’ll be using the deal just moments later," states a Loopt blog post today.

The move should bolster Loopt’s deal flow and reflects Groupon’s growing push into mobile for location-based deals. Last month, it acquired the company behind Whrrl, a forerunner of social location services like Foursquare and Loopt. Groupon Now was introduced last week via the Web as well as iPhone and Android apps. For now, the service is available only in Chicago but is expanding nationwide. Read more here.