San Francisco (AFP) - Google confirmed Friday that it was selling an enormous floating barge being converted into a space for showing off and learning about technology.

The sale trims the number of vessels in Google's budding showroom armada to three and raises questions about whether the Internet titan is abandoning the aquatic effort.

"We can confirm that the barge has been sold," the Silicon Valley-based firm told AFP.

The barge was one of four docked on US coastlines and in various states in what Google described as an experiment with creating "interactive space" for learning about technology.

Stacks of shipping containers were being used in the barge modification, which reportedly included adding a party deck.