Dept. of Shameless Rumors

Your shameless speculation of the week comes courtesy of Forbes Magazine, which picked up on some strange rumblings coming out of the GooglePlex. The Internet research firm Net Applications has refined its Web analytics service so keenly that it can now break down and analyze Web traffic by company, recording the Internet browser, the IP address, and other features. But when its researchers turned their spotlight on Google's Internet use, they discovered an odd fact: some 11 percent of Google computers -- and sometimes up to 30 percent -- are using an operating system that strips all identifying information from itself, essentially deploying a cloaking device as they access the Internet.

Instantly, Googlewatchers went to work wondering what it might mean. Net Applications might be picking up Google's spiderbots as they crawl across the Web, collecting information. Google employees might be accessing the Web from Android mobile phones, or still working on the Chrome browser. But Vince Vizzacaro, Net Applications' executive vice president of marketing, thinks he has the real answer: Google is secretly building its own operating system to challenge Windows. "I'd be shocked if Google wasn't developing its own operating system," he told Forbes. "They clearly want to ride online services without using Microsoft."

Google representatives refused to comment on such rumors. Which leads us to propose one of our own: Net Applications might just be making a mountain out of a molehill to get some free promotion for its new analytics service. Still, when it comes to Google's ambition, it's always fun to take a guess.