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The web has been abuzz since last Friday when the long rumored Google phone surfaced as hundreds of Google employees received a new HTC Android phone, called the Nexus One (a reference to the movie Blade Runner and Philip Dick’s novel).

Google VP Mario Queiroz, announced the phone as a dogfooding diet for the holidays on the Google Mobile Blog:

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.

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.

Google staffers have been discouraged to discuss technical specs, but the phone seems to closely resemble the much rumored and anticipated HTC Dragon/Passion.

This “field test” of the Nexus One blows the doors wide open to much speculation and 2010 will be an exciting year for Android for sure. Here are some of the latest rumors:

• Google is planning to sell this phone unlocked online and via retail channel, possibly Best Buy.
• This is a GSM phone and should run on either AT&T or T-Mobile – however there is some question about what GSM frequencies are supported.
• Runs Android 2.1
• Expected to launch in early 2010, as early as January.

One of the big open questions is: Where is Big Red and does this squash the Passion on Verizon?

Photo credit: Cory O’Brien