Happy April Fool's Day! Google created the biggest joke of the day by changing it's name to "Topeka" . It's a gesture that is based on a Google contest for American cities to compete to host and test Google's high-speed Internet service.
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Does this mean that Topeka won? Well, Google says "No." And many cities are hoping that is the case. But the fact that Google has invested it's entire website to focus on Topeka is a positive sign for the state capitol of Kansas.
As Google puts it, their big dream is:
to build and test ultra high-speed broadband networks in a small number of trial locations across the United States. We'll deliver Internet speeds more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have access to today with 1 gigabit per second, fiber-to-the-home connections. We plan to offer service at a competitive price to at least 50,000 and potentially up to 500,000 people.
Topeka has certainly not been bashful with their attempts to gain the targeted prize. They created a website called http://www.ThinkBigTopeka.com that explains why Topeka would be a great city for this experiment. A visitor to the site asked a question about the impact of Google's highspeed Internet access to the citizens of Topeka to which Alissa Sheley replied "...if Google lays fiber throughout Shawnee County (as we’re rallying for), you’re going to finally have options. And according to Google, affordable options. The Google Fiber Experiment has the potential to effect everyone! Everyone in Topeka, everyone in Shawnee County and everyone in Kansas."
There's a Facebook fan page that you can join, too! Think Big Topeka on Facebook
Google explains it this way in the official Google blog:
"Early last month the mayor of Topeka, Kansas stunned the world by announcing that his city was changing its name to Google. We’ve been wondering ever since how best to honor that moving gesture. Today we are pleased to announce that as of 1AM (Central Daylight Time) April 1st, Google has officially changed our name to Topeka."
The blog post even offers some practical advice on how to use "Topeka" in conversation, as in "I did a Topeka search" and "I Topeka'ed him."
Out of the top 20 Google Trends, 13 refer to: Google's name change to Topeka, Topeka KS, Google Kansas, April Fool's Day Google name change, and more.
It's no surprise that Google would find Topeka Kansas a great place for this venture. The cost of doing business in the "digital prairielands" in comparison to Silicon Valley could be a great reason for Google to start in the middle of the country and expand out.
What do you think about this? If you live in the Wichita, Topeka and Kansas City area, how do you feel it will impact the job opportunities?
Leave your comments below!
Comments
I think it's funny! At first I didn't believe it because I mean, who has even heard of Topeka? But it's a wonderful opportunity.
I hope they bring it to us!
Google has many ventures, this is another experimental project much like the one where they provided there corp office city with city wide WIFI at no cost. No city in the world that i know of has gigabit up and download speeds that i know of currently, the cost is "too much" according to ISP's, "but have the capability to do so if they so wanted" Currently a T1 internet connection runs about $500 to $800 a month and that's only at 1.55 "megabits", I'm not sure how Google plans to pull off providing gigabit up and download speed to a whole city and keep there cost down but i sure look forward to seeing Topeka get that shot at testing it out. Topeka could use a good economic shot in the arm and the Google project "could" just do that.
Topeka and the entire state of Kansas could use the opportunities that would come its way. Think of all of the possible vendor opportunities. And think of other tech companies who would be interested in checking out the cost of land.
And Google benefits too because Topeka is far enough away from the beaten path to keep other companies like Microsoft out of their neighborhood so they can focus on building this network.
Like Alan, not sure how they are going to pull it off, but maybe time warner and comcast will start appreciating their customers and pay attention to our frustrations.
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