NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - It's not just girls who get themselves in trouble between the pages of Playboy magazine.

According to Thursday's Wall Street Journal, Google Inc. is now being investigated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for an interview its founders gave one week before the company filed with the SEC to go public. The investigation could delay Google's much-anticipated initial public offering.

Under SEC regulations, company officials are barred from talking publicly about the company in the lead-up to an IPO. Google's unconventional auction-style float is expected any day now. The Playboy issue with the interview hits newsstands Friday.

According to the newspaper, founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page talk at great length about how going public might influence the culture at the widely successful search engine. They also talk about the controversial decision to track customers' Web activity in an attempt to offer customized advertising on Google's new e-mail service.

Until now, Google has been taking a strict line about not speaking with the press in the wake of what appears to be an SEC crackdown on loose lips. Earlier this year, Salesforce.com was forced to delay its public offering after its CEO gave an interview to the New York Times.