Follow the yellow brick rode to Google?

Follow the yellow brick road, follow the yellow brick road, follow, follow, follow, follow, follow the yellow brick road to Google, Kansas?

Last month, Mayor Bill Bunton of Topeka, Kansas declared that the city would be rebranding to be known as Google, Kansas. This decisions was made because of Google’s call out for cities who wanted to be considered for the new “Fiber for Communities” program. This past February, Google announced that it was going to create an experimental fiber network in one community in the United States.

Bidding to be that City ended March 26 and the winner of the pilot program will be announced by the end of the year.  While at first Google declined to comment on the Topeka rebranding, anyone who opened their browser today and went to Google was met with another rebranding:

What great exposure for the town that was formerly Topeka.  Though it won’t last forever as this was just a month long endeavor for the City, it may have really given them a leg up in the competition.  How many brands can say that they convinced a global web tycoon to change their name, like Topeka did?

Published on: April 5, 2010