In a cryptic post on The Official Google Mobile Blog today, Google admitted that a Google phone does indeed exist. But it's for employees only, and only for "dogfooding" activities. Oh, and Google doesn't call it the "Google Phone."Mario Queiroz, Vice President, Product Management, posted a few short paragraphs this morning in what appears to be an attempt to quash the rumors spreading quickly across the Internet about the fabled "Google Phone." Google employees have been admitting to the existence of a product, and say it was built by HTC. Perhaps knowing that containing the information might be impossible, Google looks to be hoping to douse the fires with this post:

At Google, we are constantly experimenting with new products and technologies, and often ask employees to test these products for quick feedback and suggestions for improvements in a process we call dogfooding (from "eating your own dogfood"). Well this holiday season, we are taking dogfooding to a new level.

We recently came up with the concept of a mobile lab, which is a device that combines innovative hardware from a partner with software that runs on Android to experiment with new mobile features and capabilities, and we shared this device with Google employees across the globe. This means they get to test out a new technology and help improve it.

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Unfortunately, because dogfooding is a process exclusively for Google employees, we cannot share specific product details. We hope to share more after our dogfood diet.

In other words, yes, Google employees have Google Android phones, but they are not meant for the public. They are being used to test a bunch of mobile applications and the way that Android really works. I fully understand the concept of "eating your own dog food" as a valuable way to learn what's really going on and help make improvements. That's what Google claims it is doing with this hardware.