In the United States, most property taxes come from the individual States in which a business is located. It would be possible to locate in US waters and not be within the boundaries of a State.

Randy Holcombe, Greenvile SC, USA

Commenters are twisting this article into a taxation argument. This is ridiculous! The article says nothing about evading income tax or any tax that has anything to do with military defence. It mentions that, by the way, if they are not ON property, they will not have to pay PROPERTY taxes!

Ian Green, Geelong, Australia

The article says NOTHING of removing support from governments, as honourable a goal that might be.
It said that the data centres "might be located UP TO seven miles" offshore. That is NOT in international waters. The patent is entirely about an hypothetical energy and cooling solution!

Ian Green, Geelong, Australia

How do you enforce a patent in international waters?

Deepak Malhotra, Spokane, WA, USA

Off shore in international waters. Whose military responsibility is this. Is google going to get "free" protection off shore.
Eric Earl

eric, irvine, usa

i hope they have their own weapons too! imagine the cash crop of all that information by computer 'pirates'!

Wixxy, Bethlehem, PA, USA

Avoiding the state - a good idea.

JJ, Watkins, USA

This idea is so far-fetched. I'm not saying it's impossible or impractical, just far-fetched. Makes one wonder if Google's ambition to anchor in international waters is their way to circumvent privacy and copyright laws of the world's nations. Makes one think if privacy is an endangered specie.

Edge, Tucson, AZ, USA

They may be smart with computers... but know little about maritime law -- this idea is flawed on so many levels that it would require much more room than is alloted, to point out all of the problems with this idea.

To sum it up in one word: Stupid.

I.M. Strange, Borderland,

This reminds me of what I said when I listened to Obama during his nomination speech, when he followed his lamenting the "outsourcing of jobs" with promises to more heavily tax businesses. If he does this, we won't just outsource jobs, but entire companies.

Mike, Denver, Colorado, USA

I wonder if they are expecting protection from pirates from some government to which they are not paying taxes.

Glenn, Kenmore, USA

Google does not use Supercomputers, they use commodity servers that are linked together called a cluster but no supercomputers.

Supercomputers are machines such as IBMs Blue Gene, SGI's Altix, etc.

Main problem with Google's approach? Too innefficient.

B V, Branson, USA

There is no way they should be granted such a vague patent claim particularly as no element of the claim is unique. In effect Google are trying to lay claim to all future commercial offshore activity ... these International waters are brought to you by Google ... scary.

Mark, Liverpool,

how can they claim an idea from the novel snowblind.

Richard, Las Vegas, USA

setting aside all security/safety concerns how does Google propose to feed the servers with sufficient Internet bandwidth reliably to host such floating data centers? run optical fiber to each armada of floating server farms? optical fibers that traverse oceans normally rest on the bottom of oceans

BillC, Silicon Valley, USA

Taxation is theft.

scineram, Budapest, Hungary

to mark in n. ireland-
using education, infrastructure, and health as examples, the more the U.S. throws money at OUR education systems, the less educated we become. our most wasteful spending comes in our surface transportation bill, our road use taxes. our medicare/medicaid gets robbed every year.

john, des moines, us

Much too risky - as a former Data centre designer, who used out-of-the-box thinking for the location of back-up data centres.

An offshore site carries unacceptably high risks - whereas a data centre located by a hydro electric facility might offer power/cooling advantages without "heavy seas" risk

Richard, Bucharest,

To John, Indiana: Taxes are evil? The same taxes that go towards educating the people that businesses require to function, whilst also keeping them healthy. Not to mention the infrastructure on top of which an economy needs to run efficiently. People like you amaze me in your short-sightedness.

Mark, Kircubbin, N Ireland

RE: How to keep the barges safe? Safety issues concerning sea worthy platforms are more pronounced if the platform is a floating platform rather than a submerged platform. Submersible 'barges' out at sea might weather a storm better than a surface barge.

Theodor , New York, USA

More businesses should take themselves outside the control of nation states. Google should declare itself independent and hire its own protection. The comments here are ridiculous, as though militaries actually provide any real protection. Taxes are evil; avoiding them is virtuous.

John Delano, Hammond, Indiana

These severs set sail for a 3 hour tour...a 3 hour tour

Stephen, Dallas, TX

If they require rescue or go into jeopardy should taxpayers of any country use their resources? I don't think so. If Google wishes to avoid paying taxes, obeying laws, and contributing to society for the right of protection, let Mother Nature and pirates have their way with them.

David, New Cumberland,

Does this mean Google will be able to marry us via the internet, since we'd be communicating through their captain?

Timmy, LA, USA

Brilliant. I'd like the job of Cruise Director on that boat.

Stacy P., Boulder, USA

If they locate in international waters for the express purpose of avoiding any nation's tax liabilities, what navy or police force do they expect to protect them? Floating installations that are known to be under no nation's naval or police protection could quickly become targets for piracy.

Rory Connally, Tacoma, WA

Goggle spends 7 million a million for power to gather and sort data that exist, they are duplicating effort, this model is inefficient. A new model where site contribute to this process is under patent review and will revolutionize internet search by saving billions in power use.

mjc, Seattle,

Yup, every vessel at sea is required by international law to fly the flag of the nation to which it owes allegiance. If there is no flag, then it is a pirate vessel subject to seizure. Google could try to invent its own nation, as Sealand did, and bestow royal titles on Google's elite.

Robo, San Diego, USA

this has to be THE dumbest idea I've ever heard.

dave s, san diego, USA

Seriously?!? The big thing people picked out of this article was tax evasion?!? Wake up and smell the non-conventional thinking. DB

David, Vancouver, USA

carbon foot prints? these people are nuts, maybe al gore can park his new house boat next to them in time for next hurricaine season.

j, traverse city,

And who is going to go to the rescue when these barges break loose from their moorings, or get hijacked by some sort of cyber-pirate out on a day-trip?? The taxpayer supported US Coast Guard of course. Good grief, they just pay their taxes and improve customer service. Jacques Cousteau--NOT.

Kay, Jacksonville, NC, USA

Google evading taxes. Make them pay more.. :/

harry, syr,

There was much weeping, wailing, yelping, howling and knashing of teeth by the Liberal Elites in Washington when Stanley Tools said they were moving off shore to save on taxes. Now the Google wants to move offshore, where is the wailing??? Those whiny libs love Google but HATE Stanley. Two faced!!

Nelson, Seattle, USA

I saw an interview with the Google geeks who said their motto is 'Don't Be Evil.' If controlling internet traffic, mapping the every known street in the world and off-shore platforms don't sound evil I don't know what does.

Gary, Memphis, USA

Offshore business, whether it is green, blue or pink....who will protect these ships of data??? who will Google pay to do this for them??? Will the USA do it with their Navy or Coast Guards? If so, the price paid should be quite large....larger, I'd say then their taxes are now.

Paula, Boynton Beach, USA

"Do no evil."

I wonder how Google will reconcile this motto with what amounts to tax evasion.

T.C. , Mountain View, California,

For Ishmael from Roanoke. The oil is already hot coming out of the ground. That is why the Alaskan pipeline is raised, so it will not melt the permafrost. Not suitable for cooling a datacenter.

Andrew, Durham, NC, USA

A Patent? For putting a computer on a boat? Give me a break. 2nd though, anchor it off Somolia, they respect patents there. Who needs to belong to a nation?

Ken, Kalamazoo, MI, USA

A floating data center is not likely to be an attractive terrorist target. It is out of sight and relatively few people would be killed or injured.

Andrew, Durham, NC, USA

Great idea, but knowledge is power, and someone will want that knowledge. Property taxes buy you things like fire departments, utilities, and police forces. For when 6 45ft. speedboats with 10 men each, all carrying weapons sidle up. Will Google hire a goon squad. If you build it, they will come.

Ryan, New Orleans,

Neal Stephenson predicted in his book Cryptonomicon... over seven years ago... LOL

B Payan, PoCo, BC, Canada

Place the facility adjacent to the pipeline running from ANWR and accomplish a duel need.

Cool Google and warm the crude with heat exchangers to ease flow of crude.

It's always better to kill two birds with one stone.

Ishmael, Roanoke, VA, USA

Clever ? I think not. But it is a great way for an anti-google individual to eliminate a lot of google capital with some sort of IED... Basically this move demonstrates short-term & small thinking. It would be a short-term tax savings and long-term capital loss when (not if) it sinks.

Rob H, Greenville, SC, USA

There is a word for those who operate at sea immune from controls and taxes. That word is Pirate.

Piracy exists only when and while bigger problems distract government. Governments will not neglect this venture. The question is only how and when they would crush it.

K, Glendale, AZ, USA

Liberals don't love to pay taxes--they love for everybody else to pay taxes--its always a double standard with them. They think they can dodge taxes themselves, hence keep raising taxes on everyone else.

Will, Richmond,

And just who is going to protect the centers from terrorists? If you don't want to participate in the support of a government just be prepared for the takeover by terrorists/pirates of your data barges since you won't support the government who protects you now. Hire-a-thugs will just jump ship.

Barry G. Wick, Rapid City, USA

I am not sure on this concept, it has some merit, it is no different than Data Centers in high rise buildings. The best place for Data Centers is underground using some of natures power.

Bill

Bill Danelutti, Morton , Pa, USA

But wait - I thought all liberals love to pay property tax. I'm sure the Google guys will voluntarily pay extra tax when they move to their James Bond villain underwater super headquarters.

Wait, I have a better idea. They should move the whole company to the moon!

Marvin, Hortonsberry, USA

Anytime the government gets jipped out of taxes, I am all for that! Let gov't do with less now and then.

Tommy Frantz, Salem, USA

Come on people, there is nothing clever here, this is patent spam. Google has been churning out patent applications like this for a while. It is an idea that has been around for a while, probably has already been published, and Google is going to try to grab the patent and force people to challenge.

Kim, Seattle,

Seems to me the real issue here is the ludicrous idea that Google can patent wave energy

Alan, Kuching, Malaysia

The corrosive effects of salty sea air are a problem for hinges on boats (as well as on all other metal and near-metal parts).

It's going to be interesting to watch. (And the physical limits that countries claim go a lot further out than the number listed above.)

Bonnie, richland , usa

Answer: Deep water, deep bedded platforms similar to oil rigs. Easily supported by air service, easily protected and defended and very stable.
Consider wind farm and solar.

Jerry Lapple, Pineville, NC, USA

Google would have to overcome problems like:

1. Security from terrorist attacks
2. Safety and security from storms
3. Corrosion from sea water and sea air
4. Commute by employees
5. Nations can change tax laws to extend tax jurisdiction on the high seas
6. Sea sickness of employees

Larry C, Santa Cruz, US

sealand already does this basically.

and why use wave power? use something sensible like nuclear energy.

Edward, London,

This move sounds suspicously like Scientology or the scientolo-spoofing in "The Illuminatus Trilogy" .

David Gedge, new york, USA

Great idea. And, regarding weather, you can steer away from areas prone to bad weather, and just cruise north to benefit from colder water. Huge parts of the ocean are completely free of life forms. Heating them a little would have little effect. But the tax savings are the greatest side benefit.

Guy Cox, Towson, USA

Google is a US based company and subject to US laws. They could have data centers on the Moon and they would still be subject to US criminal and tort law. The cost to maintain a ship of this nature would likely make the ROI not worth it.

Morphy, Washington, DC,

Even if a barge were lost for whatever reason, it would have no effect whatsoever on Google's services. They are massively redundant and they can easily lose an entire datacentre (probably more) with zero side effects. They are also very eco-conscious. Negative eco problems will be engineered out.

Alex Kerr, London, UK

You people are insane. A few data centers will heat up the oceans? I've never heard of anything so stupid before in my life. There is more heat coming from the sun every second than man has produced since the beginning of time. I would have more of an issue with privacy concerns

Nick, Toronto, CA

Hey, Brian, ever heard of the U.S.S. Cole?

Kevin, Baltimoretown,

This could bring a whole old meaning to the term 'computer piracy'.

Quick - someone photoshop up a internet-themed pirate flag!

Greg, Seattle, Wa.

What are the legal implications of this? If the data centers are located beyond national borders, what laws would Google be subject to with respect to privacy, etc?

Karim, Alexandria, USA

Who would protect them from attack by terrorists? If they are exempt from laws and taxes, they are also not protected by any military.

wilson, Tulsa, ok, USA

Given that so many people have commented at how crazy this idea is, Google is probably on to something. That's often a good sign of an innovative idea. Lets check back in 10 years and see if Google was crazy or not. I think not.

Michael Roberts, Chelsea, Quebec, Canada

This sounds like something our of a cyberpunk novel.

chris, boston,

It would be a target for terrorist or pirates or any numer of bad guys. A group of small planes and a plan would be all that the bad guys would need to disrupt a large part of the internet.

T. A. Jones, Diamond, ND, USA

Well MR Jones has a point. Private pirates (they really do exist) or countries could seize the data centers and steal the data (credit cards) or hold business hostage.

re: warming the sea, data centers will disturb the native electrons, disrupting the natural life cycle of the electrons there.

Jonathon Moseley, Raleigh, NC, USA

This has all been tried before.

In the 1950s and 60s "Pirate Broadcasters" would set up transmitters just offshore to establish radio and TV stations which violated communications laws in several target nations.

It is a great tech workaround, but it won't stand up to the lawyers/regulators.

charlie, London, UK

These people are losing their minds. Do they realize that the energy dumped off the barges will heat the water and cause secondary ecological impacts? I don't know if this is a real environmental problem or not, but environmentalists will rebel at the thought.

Andy, Malvern, USA

I vote for Antarctica.... or greenland

Willaim R. Smith, Marieta, GA , USA

I can't imagine how anybody could work a companies "carbon footprint" into an article about moving data centers to a sea based operation.

Have you not googled global cooling to see what's going on with the environment?

andy, Tonganoxie, Ks, USofA

I'm sure this isn't anything to do with Big Brother. and I agree,,what happens in a sunami or pirates

Chris, Toledo,

It won't be easy. The vessel's systems will need maintenance, the vessel itself will need to be in dry dock from time to time. As with all data centers, back up after back up needs to be implemented.

Bob, Newport, USA

Nice al-Qaeda target, away from any protection a nation would normally provide.

What about data pirates?

Gary, Tupelo, MS

We should all hope that google does not do this. The heat generated by the arrays of computers would heat up the ocean water in already warmer temperatures. The effect would be devestating to ocean life, including coral. Putting arrays or computers in the ocean may also affect algae growth.

Larry Bowden, Houston, USA

Err right, because Al Qaeda's blue water navy has been wreaking havoc on American and European interests for decades now.

Brian, Portland, USA

An enormously high value terrorist target made extremely vulnerable.

Dirk Bruere, Bedford, England

Never mind the weather any one with an old navy ship or sub could simple blow them out of the water, bill gates could start a whole new trend in cooprate wars!

MR W Jones, Liverpool, England