Google Exec Raised By Wolves, Kidnapped By GypsiesGoogle Exec Raised By Wolves, Kidnapped By Gypsies

ValleyWag was reporting earlier today that Marissa Mayer, Google's "eccentric queen of search," could be "skipping out" on the Web 2.0 Summit today in San Francisco. T'aint so, says Google PR.I just spoke to Google PR operative Larry Wu, who told me that "I just spoke to her admin," and Mayer is still on for her talk at the Summit later on today (not to mention her one-on-one with this reporter). The rumor that Mayer might be a no-show belongs to the body of fear, rumor, and speculation I like to refer to as "El Goog."

That's Google spelled backward, in case you didn't notice, and it's shorthand for the cloud of mystique that surrounds the secretive Mountain View, Calif.-based search giant. When Google is rumored to be buying GM, the Taj Mahal, or the Sultanate of Brunei, that's El Goog. When Eric Schmidt makes a cryptic comment about the future of mobile phones, and markets go crazy, that's El Goog. The most outlandish example of El Goog, of course, is the legendary gPhone, which, despite near-weekly pronouncements in the blogosphere that it's arriving momentarily, has yet to make an appearance.

Marissa Mayer's been kidnapped by Gypsies. She's joined a Buddhist nunnery in Laos. She's defected to North Korea. Details at 11.