Google confirms sale of mystery barge

Google has confirmed that it is scrapping at least one of the mysterious floating tech showrooms that led had led to much speculation last year, San Jose Mercury News reported. (See: Google scrapping barge project: reports).

The internet giant had no comment on what it intended to do with a second barge, now sitting idle at the Port of Stockton.

The company, has put its plan for an ambitious tour of San Francisco Bay for the barge on hold. According to Richard Aschieris, port executive director, it just sat there like it did the day it arrived. He added, there had been no signs of any work on the floating platform.

The news comes as reports speculate that Google might be rethinking its strategy for selling Glass, its futuristic computer headset, as a mass-market consumer product.

Though the company had maintained that the barge would be "an interactive space where people can learn about new technology," there had been reports that it was intended as a traveling showroom for Glass and other cutting-edge Google products.

Google had at one time, owned four ocean-going barges, and had parked two of them on each coast of the US. The company had hired contractors to build unusually shaped, four-story structures on two of the barges -- one moored in San Francisco Bay and the other in the harbour at Portland, Maine.

The Portland Press on 31 July was the first to report the scrapping of the barge, which said it would be heading out to an undisclosed location following acquisition by an unnamed international barge company.

The barge had on board 63 shipping containers arranged like a four-storey structure which had been planned to be used for exhibiting technologies to the public.

The Portland Press quoted Jessica Grondin, spokeswoman for the city of Portland, saying the Google barge had been good for Portland's image as it linked Portland with San Francisco and high-tech innovation. She added that she was hoping for something to emerge from this. She added, everybody was waiting to see what was actually going on, eWEEK reported.

Meanwhile, according to an eWEEK report, the San Francisco barge project did not have the necessary permits for its construction and operations.

It had in February got into some regulatory problems, and had to be relocated while the permit issues were reviewed and resolved.

Both projects had been started back in October as planned floating technology showrooms for consumers.