Google's mystery barge with four levels

                        

A barge with four levels of shipping containers on board is moored in San Francisco Bay (Photo from Reuters)

From BBC

Mystery surrounds two barges that Google has moored off the coast of America.

The barges have a four-storey structure on deck and rumours are circulating about what the company plans to use them for.

One suggestion is that they could be turned in to floating data centres powered by wave action.

Others believe they could be fitted out with new showrooms for Google Glass with a "party deck" on top.

So far Google has declined to comment on what the vessels are being used for. But the company does have a patent from 2009 for a "water-based" data centre.

"It's an interesting concept," said Nick Layzell, of Telehouse, a data centre provider.

"Cooling is the big cost for any data centre, so perhaps they're trying to take advantage of having some water on tap."

But he added that water was the biggest threat to data centres because of the damage it could cause to equipment.