Google Changes Name to Topeka … But Is Fiber Broadband on the Yellow-Brick Road?

Go to Google.com right now, and you won’t believe your eyes.

The search giant has officially changed its name to Topeka.

Writes Google CEO Eric Schmidt on the company 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.”

Earlier this month, we wrote about Topeka/Google’s publicity-grabbing effort to become a test market for Google/Topeka’s experimental high-speed fiber-optic broadband. The Kansas capital is one of many cities, including KCMO, that campaigned for the honors.

The deadline for the contest was this past Friday, and Google has not yet announced the winning city, so this April Fool’s gesture will no doubt quicken the pulse of everyone at Think Big Topeka.

But, Schmidt says, “Finally, we want to be clear that this initiative is aone-shot deal that will have no bearing on which municipalities are chosen to participate in our experimental ultra-high-speed broadband project, to which Google, Kansas has been just one of many communities to apply.”

Still, that’s great publicity for Topeka. Both of them.