More details emerge on Google’s plans for its mystery barges

8:45 AM

Although Google’s mysterious barges right now look like large floating metal slabs, the company envisions eventually turning them into “unprecedented artistic structures” that will have around a dozen “fish fin” sails and will float majestically through city harbors. SFGate has uncovered some documents filed with the city of San Francisco that explain how the Google barges will be “temporary technology exhibit spaces” that will help drive foot traffic to the city’s waterfront area. Google even envisions the barges as being sort of metaphysical spaces that will inspire “conversation about how everything is connected — shorebirds, me, you, the sea, the fog and much more.” An artist’s rendering of what the magical barges will look like when completed follows below.

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Mystery solved: Google barges are giant floating Google X showrooms

 

9:30 AM

Mystery had surrounded a pair of giant barges that appeared at U.S. shores recently and were said to belong to Google, but that mystery has seemingly been solved. According to a report from CBS News’ San Francisco affiliate KPIX, the barges are floating luxury showrooms for Google X, Google’s top-secret lab that works on various unconventional projects such as Google Glass. The barges will be invite-only according to the report, and they will feature multiple product showcase floors as well as a party deck equipped with “bars, lanais and other comforts so Google can fete its upscale customers.” KPIX says the showroom floors consist of standard 40-foot shipping containers that can be swapped out. This will also make the showrooms portable, the report said, so that Google can place them on trucks or rail cars and transport them anywhere for a local showcase. One barge is currently docked at a port in San Francisco and the other is located off the coast of Maine, possibly en route to New York City.

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