See UPDATE below. Anonymous sources aka Google employees tell San Francisco’s KPIX channel 5 what these Google ‘Floaters’ are about.

First, a four-story structure made out of ship containers was seen floating on a barge in San Francisco Bay, and now a second one has been spotted in Portland Maine. How many more are there and what is the owner, Google, up to?

Hhhmmm. Maybe Jon Stewart of the Daily Show can shed some light on these ‘Floaters’ –

Here’s some more info from C-net –

C-Net dot com

The tech giant is likely building a floating data center in San Francisco Bay. But a very similar project rolled into the harbor in Portland, Maine, earlier this month. The two are definitely connected.

 As CNET reported Friday, it looks very much like Google has been building a floating data center made from shipping containers on a barge in the middle of San Francisco Bay. But it may not be the only one of its kind.

Google has not responded to multiple requests for comment. But the project in San Francisco Bay appears likely to be the manifestation of a 2009 patent for a “water-based data center,” and would likely leverage the fact that wave energy can provide cheap and plentiful power.

Now it seems as though Google may well have built a sister version of the project, and, according to the Portland Press Herald, it recently showed up in the harbor in Portland, Maine.

In both cases, the structures on both barges appear to be made from a number of shipping containers, many of which have small slats for windows, and each has one container that slants down to ground level at a 45-degree angle.

Click here to read the rest of the story – http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57609412-93/google-could-have-a-floating-data-center-in-maine-too/

UPDATE: From San Francisco’s KPIX Channel 5 newsroom –

SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX 5) – Google’s mysterious floating barge on San Francisco Bay will feature luxury showrooms and a party deck for the tech giant to market Google Glass and other gadgets to invitation-only clients, multiple sources told KPIX 5.

The project, which has been in the planning stages for more than a year, was created at Google[x], the secret facility that Google reportedly runs near its corporate headquarters in Mountain View. It is personally directed by Google co-founder Sergey Brin and is Google’s attempt to upstage rival Apple and its chain of popular retail stores, sources said.

Read the rest of the article by clicking – http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2013/10/31/googles-secret-revealed-barge-to-offer-high-end-showrooms-party-deck/