As criticism of Google's private shuttle bus service for employees living in San Francisco has reached new heights, the company quietly turned its eyes to the sea. CBS is reporting that Google has contracted a private catamaran called "The Triumphant" that ferries workers from San Francisco bay to Redwood City, California, about halfway to the company's global headquarters in Mountain View, California. Presumably, then Google employees hop out and take a bus the remaining 14 miles.

A vessel called the Triumphant that appears in CBS's report is also listed as a whale watch boat for rent on the website of a company called All American Marine, with prices starting at $1 million. For Google, it reportedly makes two trips daily, one in the morning and one at night, and can hold up to 149 passengers at capacity. The service is said be just a trial, according to CBS. But that's not likely to quell the growing tide of concern that Google and other Bay Area tech companies with private worker shuttles are isolating themselves from those outside the industry. It's also interesting timing given Google's other controversial seaborne project, the enigmatic Google barges in the Bay Area and off the coast of Maine, which Google has said will be an interactive technology space but has yet to reveal to the world.