Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
The internets are blazing with Google news today, which is April Fool’s day.
Today Google changed its name to Topeka, in a nod to the move Topeka, Kansas, made as part of its attempt to attract attention over Google’s fiber initiative. That’s a joke.
But on a Google blog, called Google Fiber Mountain, there’s an announcement that appears to be for real:
Since we announced our plans to build experimental, ultra high-speed broadband networks, the response has been tremendous. Hundreds of communities and hundreds of thousands of individuals across the country have expressed their interest in the project. We’re not going to be able to build in every interested community – our plan is to reach a total of at least 50,000 and potentially up to 500,000 people – but we hope to learn lessons from this experiment that will help improve Internet access everywhere.
We humbly thank each and every community and individual for taking the time to participate. If one message has come through loud and clear, it’s this: people across the country are hungry for better and faster Internet access.
It was an extremely difficult decision. Our decision was strictly based on proximity, community involvement, and RFI response. Today we are announcing the first round of recipients. Our mission is to bring affordable, efficient, and cost-effective Ultra-High Speed bandwidth. We have decided to choose cities in the south-east due to the lack of bandwidth in the area. Here at Google, we are very excited to introduce a new region, Google Fiber Mountain, also known as Silicon Mountain.
We are excited to be joining Greenville, SC – Asheville, NC – Johnson City, TN. Thanks to all the other cities who submitted, and a special thanks to Topeka, Kansas. We hope renaming Google to Topeka, makes up for not choosing your city. Maybe in the future?
Greenville, South Carolina http://wearefeelinglucky.com
Asheville, North Carolina http://googleavl.com
Johnson City, Tennessee http://www.highspeedahead.com
I haven’t sorted it out yet. Anyone?
Seems to me Google has not had the time to complete their data collecton much less the time to do the analysis and decide on which communities satisfy the criteria which sorts out the many down to the few.
If Lance hopes to move to Asheville from Tampa, one hopes he has a job lined up before moving here. Asheville unemployment very high. Jobs difficult to find.
Everyone can hear you, you don’t need to yell.
IT IS CLEVER, VERY CLEVER IF IT IS A PUBLICITY STUNT ——WE SHOULD TRY TO STAND OUT AS A REGION BECA– — USE WE ARE OUTSTANDING —HEAR THAT GOOGLE?
Seems like a joke. Google would announce it on normal news channels. Not through a blog. Wish it would come true though. Hope to move to Asheville this year from Tampa. Would be cool if this google thing went through.
blogger not found now – joke I guess