Topeka, Kansas, vies for Google’s affections

Welcome to Google, Kansas.

It sounds like a joke, but a city council meeting on Tuesday night confirmed it: following a decision by Mayor Bill Bunten, Topeka - the capital of Kansas - will be named after the Internet giant for one month.

"It's just fun. We're having a good time of it," the 79-year-old mayor explained to CNN on Monday.

But why exactly is Topeka making eyes at Google? Because several US cities are vying for a place in the company’s new “Fiber for Communities” programme, through which Google will install new Internet connections that would give the selected communities Internet speeds 100 times faster than those in other locations, with data transfer rates faster than one gigabit per second.

“The city that gets the fiber optics will be the next Silicon Valley,” Alissa Sheley, a 29-year-old director of social media living in Topeka (or Google), told France24.com.

Googlemania and competing campaigns

For the 122,113 residents of Topeka, the possibility of a digital Holy Grail seems to justify Mayor Bunten’s latest folly. “I was a bit surprised at first….but it’s a sort of novel idea, so why not?” said Lazone Grays, managing director of Ipsa, a technical support company in Topeka.

The hockey team was quick to succumb to the city’s Googlemania and now calls itself the “Google Roadrunners”. A handball team, a library, and a school have since joined the movement. “It’s like every day someone is changing their name for Google,” Lazone Grays told France24.com.

“Many of my friends changed their location on Twitter to Google, Kansas,” says Alissa Sheley. “But Facebook doesn’t allow it!”

Topeka is not the only city going for Google’s fibre optics. One of its main rivals for the Internet giant’s affections is Duluth, Minnesota, where a satirical video showed the mayor asking citizens to name their newborns Google (if a boy) or Googlette (if a girl). Another video from Sarasota, Florida, staked its claim by mocking Topeka for being boring and Duluth for its cold weather.

If all the campaigning seems childish, each city nevertheless puts forth more serious arguments. Sarasota, for example, has tried to remind Google that it is a hub for the animated film industry. Topeka has insisted that it has played a key role in important historical changes in the US. “Topeka has a long history of being a place where important changes happen,” Alissa Sheley explains. “A lot of blood was shed to oppose slavery, and we were among the first to have a railroad.”

Topeka, which means “to dig good potatoes” in the language of the Kansa tribe of Native Americans, has changed its name before: in 1998, the city had become “Topikachu”, in reference to a character from the Pokemon video games that were very popular at the time.