If you asked someone on Thursday morning to tell you about the Nexus S you would have got a half-eaten packet-of-crisps worth of information.

We knew, for example, that it was rumoured to be the next Nexus phone from Google and that it was likely to be made by Samsung in a similar vein to the Samsung Galaxy S.

By Thursday night however, the flood barriers had well and truly broken with details surfacing faster than emergency workers could put up sand bags to stop the information getting out.

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First Best Buy put up details, spotted by phandroid.com, on its website saying “Pure Google. The Nexus S. Available only at Best Buy this holiday season”. Suggesting that the phone would be available on T-Mobile in the US.

That got the Internet excited as the advert suggests that a pre-Christmas launch was on the cards rather than an post Christmas launch as was the case with the Nexus One, which launched in January this year.

Best Buy quickly pulled the page, but not before Android website Phandroid got a grab from Google Cache.

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But words aren’t enough in this picture-heavy world of 2010. Luckily a chap called Ryan C spotted what he thought was a small mock up of the new Nexus S on the Best Buy Mobile website. Brilliant, but who wants a mock-up?

A quick jump over to Flickr, and Engadget finds that it turns out people are snapping with the phone already and posting their photos, but under the guise of the Samsung GT-i9020.

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Meanwhile Pocket-lint has done its own bit of searching and found other photos on Picasa taken with the Nexus S.

The shot we’ve found was taken on “Nov 6, 2010," is 2560 x 1920 pixels in resolution and cites the camera by Google and the model the, Nexus S.

Other details include:

ISO: 100
Exposure: 1/15 sec
Aperture: 2.6
Focal Length: 3.4mm
Flash Used: No
Latitude: n/a
Longitude: n/a

The 2560 x 1920 pixel resolution confirms a 5-megapixel camera.

We've also found shots on Picasa taken by Ben Saitz, director, Media & Platforms Solutions at Google taking pictures of a Google branded bus on a Samsung i9020. The picture confirms Google is playing with the phone.

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The GT-i9020 has already been through the FCC, the Federal Communications Commission, the body responsible for making sure a phone is safe for consumers.

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At this point it is all speculation, but in steps Christian, an Engadget reader who having seen all the leaks decides it's a good time to send them a bevy of pictures of a phone he says is the Nexus S taken some time in October.

That shows plenty more detail, including the large touchscreen display, an LED flash, a plastic back and a design that is strikingly similar to the Samsung Galaxy S.

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So now we’ve got real photos, but what about a launch date? Well if Androidpolice.com are correct they are claiming they’ve been sent a photo of a leaked internal document from Best Buy showing that the Nexus S will be getting a dedicated endcap on the 14 November.

For those of us not in retail, an endcap is a promotional end to an aisle and prime-time real estate in a shop.  

So to recap, what we know is that it comes with a 4-inch screen, will run Gingerbread (Android 2.3), have a 5-megapixel camera and hopefully land in the US at least week commencing 14 November. 

Google is of course playing the usual "no comment" card.

What do you think of the new phone? Do you want one? Let us know in the comments below.