WebProNews

Last Friday, a blogger by the handle of Gootch may have stumbled upon a trail of breadcrumbs that leads us to Google's next big release: an online storage system, similar to AOL's Xdrive, called (what else?) Gdrive, as well as a mystery company connected to Google and a few odd domain names.

Gootch's blog, which seems an unhealthy and painstaking account of everything Google, presented the path to discovery, and even if the evidence is a bit circumstantial, it certainly makes one think.

Gootch reminds his audience of the gbrowser.com registration that any good WHOIS registry detective can figure out belongs to Google Inc., and thus boosting speculation that a Google Internet browser is on the horizon, as well as other quietly registered domains like googletelevision.net, googlehd.net, googlehdtv.net, googlehidef.com, all of which suggest that Google is heading toward some role in Internet TV as well.

Even though Google had quietly registered the domain (gbrowser.com), it wasn't long until the whole rumor mill knew of it. This drove Gootch to look up the registry for gdrive.com. Gootch was disappointed to discover the domain was the property of a company named Data Docket Inc. out of Boise, Idaho, and not Google.

But a very astute researcher finds that GoogleTV.com is also registered to Data Docket Inc. So there does seem to be a connection. Gootch also did a WHOIS search on Googlevideo.biz, which is registered to Google, but bills toData Docket, Inc., the same company that owns googletv.com and gdrive.com.

A Google search on the company reveals two mentions of Data Docket, Inc. The first is a blog that mentions Googletv.com. The second is a business registry listing Data Docket, Inc. as stationed in Oslo, Norway, not Boise, Idaho. But an official website is difficult to find and not listed on Google or Yahoo, which is strange for an apparent tech company that owns lots of interesting domain names. In fact, superpages.com has no listing for a Data Docket Inc. in Boise, Idaho.

Datadocket.com, currently under construction, is registered to Data Docket, Ltd., a company based in the Isle of Man, in the British Isles. This appears, though I can't be sure, to be a different Data Docket.

What started out as a curious exploration of the possibility of a future "Gdrive," has led to a mysterious Google connection to some obscure company in Norway that is registering domains and taking billing statements, it would seem, for the search company-which leads one to question, what's Google up to?

Jason L. Miller is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.