There’s no place like home in Google, Kansas. Topeka, Kansas has changed its name temporarily to Google for the month of March. Why? In the quest to be chosen for the Google 1Gbit Fibre Broadband. This publicity stunt hopes to land Topeka a spot in the exclusive high-speed internet trials.

Google fever has spread in Topeka where local restaurant The Break Room hosted a Google Fiber party and gave free dinner coupons to the first 20 people who filled out an online petition. “We are from here, born here, and want to see our home do as well as possible,” says co-owner Chris Schultz.

Google’s 1Gbit fibre broadband would be 20x faster than the highest performance package by Verizon, and Google has promised to drop a lot of dough on the project in hopes to eventually bring this high-speed broadband service to up to 500,000 homes.

Other cities are not to be outdone by Topeka’s honorable name change. Greensboro, N.C. is preparing an “Operation Google” gift package for Google headquarters and has set aside $50,000 for promoting a Google broadband effort. They plan on making a YouTube channel dedicated to residents videos on why they need Google’s broadband services. They are also considering renaming their city Googlesboro. 

Duluth, MN posted a YouTube video response to Topeka stating “that all first born males in the city shall be named “Google Fiber” and all first born females shall be “Googlette Fiber.” According to the mayor “”Just because Topeka was the first to make an obnoxious symbolic gesture to suck up to the good folks there at Google doesn’t mean that we can’t suck up even more.”

Many Facebook fan pages have sprouted for cities like Eden Prairie, MN, Grand Rapids, MI, Columbia, MO, and Ventura, CA. 

“Level of community support is certainly one of the factors we’re considering,” says a Google spokesman who asked not to be identified. Google is taking applications for trial areas until March 26th, more information can be found at the Official Google Blog.

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