About a month after news broke that Google's mystery barge in the San Francisco Bay was more like a fancy Google sailboat, a few more details have emerged about the floating heap loaded with shipping containers and embellished with faux-sails. According to the ship's builder, the vessel is officially a buoyed retail store. Google, however, remains coy about the barge's purpose.

In earlier reports submitted to the Port of San Francisco, the ship's builders at Turner Construction Company described the vessel as a "studio" or "temporary technology exhibit space" — as though the barge could be used for learning about something remotely educational instead of just a demo space where the company's reps can evangelize Google Glass. In a telling quote, Mirian Saez, director of operations of the Treasure Island Development Authority, explains that Google reps told her that "this would be an important opportunity for the launching" of Google Glass, expected to become available to more users next year.

As we noted last month, the barge seems like a convenient way to circumvent San Francisco's pesky planning process while at the same time captivating an audience of curious onlookers. An executive from the Bay Conservation and Development Commission, which will need to approve the project before it can park anywhere in the bay, told the Chronicle's Matier and Ross that a retail store probably won't float by the commission too easily.

Regardless of its purpose, the barge is huge: it stands about four stories tall, contains 80 shipping containers total and will eventually extend its size even further via decorative sails. That likely won't go over well with the various San Francisco interest groups who make it their goal to protect waterfront views along the bay and are still reeling that slap in the face from Larry Ellison and the America's Cup. (For comparison, the tallest structure built in the A-Cup village was two shipping containers stacked on top of each other. Google's barge appears to be four or five containers high.) In addition to the San Francisco barge, Turner Construction claims to be building similar vessels for use in New York and L.A.

Google's lawyers, meanwhile, are still trying to keep everyone in a fog about the project. The company told the Chronicle over email, "While we have explored many ideas in the past around the barges, our current plan, as we've stated before, is to use them as an interactive space where people can learn about new technology."

Our prediction? Google will try to win over skeptics by selling the barge as "an interactive space" for learning, just one where most of the "learning" will be about why you should want to put a computer on your face.

Previously: The Mysterious Google Barge Is Now The Fancy Google Sailboat
[Chron]