Google told mystery barge ‘needs to move’ from San Francisco Bay

Re:Google told mystery barge ‘needs to move’ from San Franci... by nhayden on Tuesday February 04, 2014 @09:13PM (#7181510)

The story I heard about this barge not mentioned in this article or in the one in joel's comment: they're going to use it as an office space for employees who can't legally work in the US, either because of visa issues or something else. It makes sense Google wouldn't want this to be public information.

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Re:Google told mystery barge ‘needs to move’ from San Franci... by joelrunyon on Tuesday February 04, 2014 @10:00PM (#7181645)

I think you're thinking of Blue Seed (https://blueseed.co/) which is a non-Google venture and off the Pacific Ocean outside US territory waters.

If the Barge is in the bay - it's still in US territory & they still need visas.

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Re:Google told mystery barge ‘needs to move’ from San Franci... by skj on Tuesday February 04, 2014 @09:32PM (#7181559)

Also, that suggestion is pretty silly.

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Re:Google told mystery barge ‘needs to move’ from San Franci... by jrockway on Wednesday February 05, 2014 @01:06AM (#7182177)

Indeed, there are Google offices in countries with much more ... liberal ... immigration policies. The only convenience a barge would offer is timezone issues, but who wants to live on a barge just to be in the same time zone as Mountain View? I'm guessing nobody.

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Re:Google told mystery barge ‘needs to move’ from San Franci... by raldi on Wednesday February 05, 2014 @02:03AM (#7182337)

There are other advantages. For example, American employees could visit them in person any day necessary, and then go home to SF or Mountain View, or alternate between the offices a couple days a week.

There would also likely be staggering tax benefits.

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Re:Google told mystery barge ‘needs to move’ from San Franci... by jrockway on Wednesday February 05, 2014 @02:53AM (#7182480)

Hmm, that's true.

I worry about the logistics. What if there's some condition where the barge needs to be evacuated (storm, etc.). Since nobody has visas for the mainland, where would they go?

Also, let's say you have 1000 engineers living and working there; where are you going to get all that network bandwidth? Wireless?

Finally, families?

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Re:Google told mystery barge ‘needs to move’ from San Franci... by raldi on Wednesday February 05, 2014 @03:41PM (#7186650)

As usual, just follow the ST:TNG playbook.

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Re:Google told mystery barge ‘needs to move’ from San Franci... by jrockway on Wednesday February 05, 2014 @11:11PM (#7188679)

Install four lights and try to convince people that there are five?

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Re:Google told mystery barge ‘needs to move’ from San Franci... by raldi on Wednesday February 05, 2014 @11:46PM (#7188777)

Okay, for reals this time:

> What if there's some condition where the barge needs to be evacuated

Whatever a cruise ship or airplane does.

> Also, let's say you have 1000 engineers living and working there; where are you going to get all that network bandwidth?

Undersea cable, attached to a buoy. Or yeah, wireless. Have a local copy of as much as possible to allow development with a minimum of ship-to-shore packet transmission.

> Finally, families?

They live there too. Just like Star Trek.

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