Tech's biggest flops and gaffes in 2014 (pictures)

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  14. The Google barges' unceremonious end

  
  

  Remember Google's barges -- the mysterious vessels made of dozens of shipping containers?   initially bobbed alongside Treasure Island in the middle of San Francisco Bay. A second was then discovered in the harbor in Portland, Maine. The crafts captivated the tech world, spurring speculation about their purpose. Were they futuristic data centers? Floating retail outlets?

  Alas, despite Google's revelation that the barges were set to become mobile showcases for new technology, the San Francisco vessel was, early this year, moved without fanfare 80 miles east to Stockton, Calif. The Portland craft was dismantled and its shipping containers sent to the scrap heap. The reason: the Coast Guard determined the barges presented fire and other safety hazards.

  An anticlimactic end to something that garnered so much interest, and to a project that was reportedly budgeted at tens of millions of dollars.