TOPEKA - Google's name for Today

Lincoln Boss

I was mildly surprised when I opened Google's homepage today. Instead of the customary Google, it was replaced by the letters TOPEKA. Knowing it is April 1 or April Fools Day, I knew right away it was some sort of a joke. However, it made me curious about what is Topeka.

TOPEKA - Google's name for Today


From the Google Blog, it says

"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.

We didn’t reach this decision lightly; after all, we had a fair amount of brand equity tied up in our old name. But the more we surfed around (the former) Topeka’s municipal website, the more kinship we felt with this fine city at the edge of the Great Plains.

In fact, Topeka Google Mayor Bill Bunten expressed it best: “Don’t be fooled. Even Google recognizes that all roads lead to Kansas, not just yellow brick ones.”
Topeka is the capital city of Kansas State and it means to dig good potatoes. Big G chose the name as its April Fool's offering to return a favor. The city decided to change its name for the whole month from Topeka to Google, Kansas. It is obviously an ingenious ploy to persuade Google to choose the city for its Google Fiber project which awards ultra-fast broadband internet connection to city benificiaries.




Topeka Amphitheater
Photo taken from the Google Blog

Which leads to the question:

If you are a city mayor, what tech or gadget-related name would you name your city?

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

GO TOPEKAAAAAAAA!@

Geeks in Minutes

Anonymous said...

APPLE

Anonymous said...

I trippedn on it this for about 3 secs. however its a really cool deal, having never been to topeka kansas in fact never heard of topeka kansas even, its good to know that they have a mayor that obviously got it going on. good for him oh and for the town of "TOPEKA"

TCPirate said...

Fabulous, the nation and the world need a corporation with this much of a sense of humor. Go Google! Between your stance in China and now this Topeka April Fools Day you are to be congratulated for you inspiration, you valor and your damn good ability to keep us loving you!

Best alway,

Tammy

CTO of a e-learning company

Anonymous said...

Microsoft or <.<...>.> ...ORANGE! (To avoid apple lawsuits) We will have a partly eaten orange for the flag.

Anonymous said...

I've been to Topeka,it sucks!

Anonymous said...

iPod -> serves dual purpose: (1) name of a gadget and (2) "pod" refers to a "security casing" or "protective covering" so it speaks of the safety and security in the city :)

Anonymous said...

HAHA this is great, they even went as far as adding a web address try typing in www.topeka.com. This is hilarious!!!

Anonymous said...

Topeka is only the capital of Kansas. How can someone have not heard of it before today?
I liked the joke.

Anonymous said...

For those of you who did not ever hear of Topeka all I have to say to you is that it is the capital of Kansas.

Roger S - a KS resident! said...

Well, Living in Kansas and also a Kansas Jay-hawk (meaning born in Kansas), I sure must say that I admire GOOGLE for doing this and recognizing our State Capital. I'm sure that everyone in the world that used GOOGLE for searching had to type in TOPEKA and find out what TOPEKA was! I lived here all my life and did the same thing! I Topeka'd TOPEKA and never realized what it meant for sure! I have many friends from Topeka nad have been there, but never, never realized it meant to dig potatoes! This isn't IDAHO LOL!

Cheers, GOOGLE! Way to go!

Anonymous said...

I actually knew what Topeka was because I saw it in Foster's House for Imaginary Friends. Blue is watching the weather and keeps saying topeka over and over, making it things like toe picka. After that its been stuck in my head.

Anonymous said...

Hmmm... so my birth ceriticate will now read Google Kansas. I'm sure that will fly with the SSA...
Happy Topekaing...

Tonerboss said...

Obviously, I would name my city to my product. Toner Cartridges

tintin said...

Java... Relative platform independence and can support interactivity. :)

doms said...

Thanks for taking time to comment. Feel free to add your name so that I can thank you specifically.

Thank you Endopla, Tammy, Actuary85, Roger, Tonerboss & Tintin.

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