The mania surrounding Google's offer to bring lightning fast Internet access to an American city of its choice is about to close. The deadline for zany applications is March 26.
The Mountain View company's fiber-optic offer includes picking up the tab for building the network and the number of cities saying "pick me" is increasing faster than this weeks Google searches for Eric Massa.
Here's what got the craziness rolling Febuary 10:
"Google is planning to launch an experiment that we hope will make Internet access better and faster for everyone. We plan to test ultra-high speed broadband networks in one or more trial locations across the country. Our networks will deliver Internet speeds more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have access to today, over 1 gigabit per second, fiber-to-the-home connections. We'll offer service at a competitive price to at least 50,000 and potentially up to 500,000 people."
The offer is for any community that has between 50,000 and 500,000 residents.
Here are just a few of the California cities raising their hands wildy in Mountain View's direction:
- Sunnyvale (home of Yahoo!)
- Cupertino (home of Apple)
- Palo Alto (home of Facebook)
- Redding
- Chico
- Davis
- Tracy
- Modesto
- Stockton
- Merced
Part of the application criteria is to show some kind of demonstration that illustrates the level of commitment the town would have in working to install, test and use the system. That is where the fun begins.
The mayor of Duluth, Minnesota took the polar plunge into Lake Superior:
Topeka, Kansas renamed itself:
Local
A flash mob took over MU in Columbia, Missouri:
Holland, Michigan came up with a new sewer action figure:
As they say on TV news: Stay tuned.
