There have been sightings of four mysterious ‘barges’ floating in the San Francisco bay area. Journalists and coast guards have gone to extra lengths to find out precisely what these things are, and to whom they belong. Sadly, they’ve managed to find out nothing, except for the fact that they belong to Google, and that the internet-giant is using them for some sort of secret project.

Speculation is rife. Some say it’s a marketing thing, while some say that the barges are some sort of water-based data centre. No one knows fir sure, but  CBS affiliate KPIX reports the barge will boast a party deck and showrooms to market Google Glass and other gadgets. “They are probably half data center and half retail because the bottoms are wide open,” says Patrick O’Hara, a contractor with Yerba Buena Builders, whose business is across the street from where the barge is moored.

The barge is filled with shipping containers, which lends the marketing theory some authority. O’Hara says that builders cut open the bottom layer of all the containers to create an open floor plan, speculating it may be for Google to bring customers into a showroom.

A local building contractor says the barges have been under construction for a year now, and that they were filled with electronics that were indistinguishable from his vantage point.

Whatever it is, we’re pretty sure it’s going to be something cool. Google tends to do that.

[Source : USA Today, Youtube]