The Mystery Of The Google Barges Still Remains Unsolved
he Google boys are keeping mum on details of the two large barges being built on the East Coast and West Coast of the United States- inviting a lot of conjecture.
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Google Barges / Gtty
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When a company as large, as powerful, very wealthy and with such obvious global aspirations as Google have, anything they do that is out of the ordinary or does not come with an immediate explanation is liable to cause those people with a more than an active imagination to begin to think in the wrong direction.
Conjure up images of a recent James Bond movie, rumors, gossip and some fairly exaggerated scenarios have been flying around the world for more than a week now since the news of the mystery barges, currently reaching the final stages of production in two sites, one close to San Francisco and the other in Portland, Maine.
The latest theory, coming from a San Francisco TV station were supposed to be in the know, is that the barges are being constructed as a form of luxury floating showrooms that will allow complete confidentiality for when the Google boys want to display some of the latest innovations to a selected audience.
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Google Barges/ Getty
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According to the information gathered by the TV station, the driving force behind the barge project is the highly secretive Google X research lab, where the company is reported to be involved in developing a number of mind-boggling future projects such as self-driving cars and the famous but infamous Google Glasses. Overseeing the Google X research lab is Sergey Brin, Google’s co-founder and the one accredited with having a more fertile imagination than Larry Page, his co-founder.
Since the presence of that Google barge was first spotted, apparently transported in total secrecy to the San Francisco Bay where he now lives moored next to the aptly named Treasure Island, which is situated roughly halfway between San Francisco and Oakland.
Someone he knew something about Google’s plans was Larry Goldzband, executive director of the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission, who was approached by Google representatives during the summer months.
Google granted Goldzband the courtesy of updating him on their plans to tow the barge to Treasure Island and very little else.
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Google Barges / Getty
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All the Google representative was prepared to admit was that the company is interested in introducing a certain technology to the Bay Area, which will be situated on a large floating barge. They were not obliged to and were not prepared to prepare to admit where exactly the barge will be placed or how long it will remain there. The representative did state during the meeting that Google reserves the right to move their mystery barge up and down the bay or even tow it to a completely separate location. It is understood that the authorities in Portland Maine came up against a very similar wall of polite silence.
What Larry Goldzband did hasten to point out was that if Google are planning building a permanent structure or mooring the secret barge for an extended period of time in the bay, they will eventually need a permit from the BCDC. While it remains under construction, albeit well advanced Google will not require any form of permit.
In the meantime the world can only watch and wonder.
http://jewishbusinessnews.com/2013/11/04/the-mystery-of-the-google-barges-still-remains-unsolved/
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Google is keeping everyone guessing over mystery barge floating in San Francisco Bay
November 1, 2013 1
The search giant refuses to confirm it owns the four-storey structure
Four storeys tall, 250ft long and 72ft wide, there’s little doubt that Google’s latest idea is a big one.
The only problem: nobody knows what it is yet.
The mysterious structure, swaddled in scaffolding and floating on a vast barge in San Francisco Bay, is composed of shipping containers welded together, painted white with several narrow slits for windows and topped with 12 spires that may be antennae.
The waterborne monolith has been linked to Google, yet the search giant has refused to confirm it owns the structure or reveal its purpose.
The barge, which is generating feverish speculation in San Francisco and Silicon Valley, is registered to a Delaware firm, By and Large LLC.
The mystery deepened this week with the discovery of another, near-identical barge 2,700 miles away on the east coast of the US, in Portland, Maine. This is said to have appeared in Portland’s harbour on 11 October and is also registered to By and Large.
Local media reports suggest a Maine-based company, Cianbro, has been making secret interior and electronics modifications to the structure. Cianbro would not provide any details of its client or the work, but revealed the barge is destined to leave Portland once it is completed. A comprehensive investigation of the San Francisco barge by the Cnet website determined its most likely purpose was as a massive, sea-going computer server. In 2009, Google was granted a patent for a “water-based data centre”.
Bob Jessup, a construction professional whose workplace is adjacent to the facility on Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay, where the structure was assembled, told Reuters the project had been underway for a year.
The area was fenced off, he said, while the shipping containers were outfitted with electronics equipment and then loaded on to the barge with a crane. He estimated that about 40 welders worked on the structure, but would not reveal any details.
“It was a phenomenal production,” Mr Jessup said. “None of them would tell us anything.”
Over the weekend, the Bay Area news station Kpix reported that the barge might be a mobile store for a new line of high-tech eyewear, Google Glass, designed to travel from city to city via the coast and rivers.
The search giant is sufficiently concerned about keeping its latest venture a secret, however, so that even US government officials have been legally prevented from disclosing any details about the barges and their contents. At least one coast guard employee and an inspector for a California state government agency have signed non-disclosure agreements with Google.