Welcome to “Google, Kansas – the capital city of fiber optics”

Topeka Mayor Bill Bunten signed a proclamation Monday calling for Topeka to be known for the month of March as “Google, Kansas — the capital city of fiber optics.”  All in an attempt to get on the Mountain View tech giant’s radar as a test bed for new fiber-optic technology that would bring it Internet connections at top speed.

The Topeka Capital-Journal wrote that Mayor Bill Bunten signed a proclamation Monday that designates the town as “Google” for the duration of March, in an attempt to make it a more palatable choice for a test market than some of the other cities in the running–like Grand Rapids, Mich., and Baton Rouge, La. It’s not intended to be as permanent as the Oregon town that actually renamed itself Half.com in exchange for cash and free STUFF.

Topeka is no stranger to temporary name changes.  As the Capital Journal explains:

Jim Ogle, general manager of WIBW-TV Channel 13 “told the council Monday about how Mayor Joan Wagnon in August 1998 issued a proclamation temporarily changing Topeka’s name to “ToPikachu” in recognition of the nationwide kickoff here of the ‘Pokemon’ media franchise, which features a fictional species of creatures named ‘Pikachu.’”

Ogle said that if Topeka could change its name “for a small doll that sounds like I sneezed,” it could certainly do the same for Google.

This is an interesting campaign and it might just land Topeka super fast internet that Usain Bolt would struggle to keep up with; but until then I think we can all have a little chuckle at this one.

I am certainly glad that Topeka chose this attention grabbing method over the “Tattoo Avertising/Human Billboard” route.