Google announced it is opening a location in the Phoenix area of Arizona where it will locate 600 engineering and support jobs. Bloggers began speculating on whether Google could be planning an auction site to rival eBay (http://www.searchenginejournal.com/index.php?p=2322).

Mike Sunnucks, a reporter with The Business Journal in Phoenix, said Google was tight-lipped about its plans for the facility. He did say that Phoenix is known as a back-office to support payment services, and is not known as a high-tech hub. Bank of America and American Express have operations located in Phoenix.

Rumors of a Google online payment service began in June when ChannelAdvisor's CEO Scot Wingo made reference to a Google Wallet payment service at a Piper Jaffray conference (http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y05/m06/i20/s05).

The TechDirt blog reported Wednesday that someone had uncovered a "Google Purchases" page (http://techdirt.com/articles/20051012/0020217_F.shtml). However, don't believe everything you read; the same day, the Google dentist bog was revealed to be a hoax (http://digbig.com/4exye).

Related Articles

"Google's 600-person Arizona plant sparks competition," by Mike Sunnucks, The Business Journal (Phoenix), 10/12/05
http://sanfrancisco.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2005/10/10/daily33.html

"Google to add 600 jobs at engineering facility in Valley," Jonathan Higuera, The Arizona Republic, 10/12/05
http://digbig.com/4exyj

"Google to locate new facility in Phoenix area" (AP)
http://digbig.com/4exym

Google Job Postings, Phoenix
http://digbig.com/4exyg