“The so-called Google barge, once envisioned as a floating showroom for Google Glass and other high-tech gadgets, is heading for a less glamorous future now that the structure on top of it is destined for the scrap yard,” Tom Bell reports for The Protland Press Herald. “It’s a pitiful end for a great mystery that generated national attention when the strange-looking barge was towed into Portland Harbor last October.”
“The barge carries 63 shipping containers arranged to create a four-story building. The structure was assembled in New London, Connecticut, and the barge was towed to Portland, where Cianbro Corp. was scheduled to do interior work on it, including the installation of undisclosed technology equipment,” Bell reports. “Cianbro has never disclosed the identity of the barge’s owner or its purpose. A similar mystery barge appeared on the waterfront in San Francisco last year. After some digging by reporters on both coasts, Google admitted that it had commissioned the barges to serve as ‘an interactive space where people can learn about new technology.'”
“When finished, the barge in Portland was to be towed to New York City and opened for an invitation-only crowd of hip and affluent urbanites. Never mind,” Bell reports. “On Wednesday, a tugboat towed the barge from Rickers Wharf Marine Facility in Portland and deposited it at Turner’s Island Cargo Terminal in South Portland. Roger Hale, owner of the terminal, said the structure had been purchased by an unnamed “international barging company” and was being prepared to leave Portland for an ocean voyage to an undisclosed location. The containers, though, will be disassembled at Turner’s Island and scrapped, said Lance Hanna, deputy harbor master for Portland Harbor… Still, the city made out financially, collecting $400,000 in property taxes on the barge while it sat in the harbor.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Our Lady of Transitory Endeavor strikes again:
Google Reader, Google Gears, Google Buzz, Google Pack, Google One Pass, Google Lively, Google Listen, Google Barge…
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz” and “Lynn Weiler” for the heads up.]
Garbage in Garbage out.
GIGOLE?
Google in, Garbage out.
Pity Google can’t be scrapped.
No, it was an NSA fiber cable tap. Now since the disclosures they had to scrap the whole project. The containers would have housed equipment and staff to work on the collected data, in isolation.
/s
Actually that’s the most logical explanation concerning this whole debacle.
Seriously I got scared after posting that…
Google is just getting less and less interesting.
Google can only barge so much.
Garbage or Gar-baRge?
“There’s always a large junk part of the market.”
This is why google will never be as successful as they want to be.
Some half baked idea that should never have even been approved in the first place that cost $100s millions.
Somewhere Ballmer is pissed that he hadn’t thought of such a creative way to throw shareholder money away!
Buy a sports team – like RIM. I like his strategy. I like it a lot.
And the other barge sits abandoned, tied to a deserted pier on a slough in the backwaters of the San Joaquin River in bankrupt Stockton, CA (Yes, THAT Stockton) 90 miles east of San Francisco.
Why would they CHOOSE to build it out of shipping container boxes? It must have cost a fortune to cut openings (internal and external) in the thick steel. The whole structure (which is meant to be mobile) must weigh “a ton” (a lot more than). It’s not very seaworthy when being moved; certainly not “ocean-going.” Wireless signal transparency must be terrible inside a metal cage.
Google should have just purchased a ship, like an aging (smaller) cruise ship, refurbished it as a “floating showroom for Google Glass and other high-tech gadgets,” and sailed it (with fanfare) into various ports. That would actually be kind of cool…
Like I said, a totally crap idea.
But that’s what you get when you empty 12 yr olds to come up with ideas.
Maybe google should start emoting some ‘professional’ creative thinkers and not rely on interns.
…Google+…
That’s what rose-coloured glasses gets you
But was it a driverless barge
I never was interested in what it was fr.
I personally believe it was just a diss asteroid attempt at guerrilla marketing.
In other words a waste of money and tax reduction exercise.
There’s a nifty story here. I hope some curious minds get on the case.
i knew from the start that the google boat was overhyped crap. but it would’ve been cool if it had sailed into a swirling vortex and traveled in alternate realities
They could have ended up in an alternate reality where google was a good company and paid people for using their information instead of stealing it.
True, they could have sailed into a hurricane vortex, going back in time 12 years, just in time to alter the course of history and stop Cheney’s Folly, the Iraq War, before it began. Then Google would finally be good for something.
Now they need to scrap Android.
Don’t worry that’s a definite future that will happen.
aaaaaawwwww……
I wanted them to mount a giant pair of Google Glass on the four storey structure built to resemble the head of Eric Schimdt
I imagine it stealthily creeping through the foggy harbour demented eyes glowing in the dark scaring the shit out of the unwary ….
They’ll call it Voyage of the Mole Glasshole.
🙂
The barges are being used to ship remaining shareholder cash to the cayman islands. Eric Schmidt is busy clearing coffers before the auditors show up.
SS Turd.
I bet if they sunk it offshore, even coral would hate it.
Still, I think it’s great that companies like Google try to create something new and many times something science fiction like. They spend so much on innovation, I only wish other companies did the same.
Google didn’t try to create something new.
There was no plan for those barges, it was a publicity stunt.
Exactly!
A publicity stunt that made the stock go up by 20 bucks that day and some more even the day(s) after. Probably added billions to their market cap.
Maybe Google tried to copy Apple again, but completely misunderstood SJ when he said, ” Real artists ship”.
💰💵🚽
OpenDoc, PowerOpen, Pippin, Newton, Printers, Accessories, iBook, “iTunes Social Network”, iMessage, iCal, eWorld, .Mac, MobileMe…..what’s the point?
Funny, I thought this site was Mac Daily News. So what does this have to do with Apple’s Mac platform?
This ad-infested page with ZERO references to the Macintosh represents click-whoring at its worst.