Ask HN: What does the Google Ocean team do?

[thehickmans]

I was out for dinner with family last night, when I noticed a group come into the restaurant wearing Google Ocean fleeces. One member of the group was carrying a laptop and some documents, from which I surmised that I was witnessing a project team dinner. Does anyone know what the Google Ocean team might be doing in the field? Could they be piloting the Google Ocean View submersible? I'm in North Vancouver, British Columbia.

[sowbug]

It's a codename having nothing literally to do with water or seas. The codename is for a released product.

[falsestprophet]

VentureBeat reported the team has something to do with book search and digitization.

Here is more information for the curious: http://venturebeat.com/2009/02/02/what-is-googles-other-ocea...

[jcapote]

And which product is that?

[nx]

Because it was THAT hard to Google it, right? http://www.google.com/search?q=google+ocean

[swombat]

Why spend 5 seconds googling something when you can waste hundreds of people's time with your easily-answered question?

[nico78]

isn't it part of Google Earth, ocean-floor mapping?

[colinplamondon]

http://tinyurl.com/cdlspk

[thehickmans]

Thanks for the painfully juvenile replies, guys. I was looking for something more insightful than the press releases and media coverage that turn up in search results.