US cities go gaga over Google's gigabit

San Francisco, Mar 29: More than 600 communities across United States are doing everything for Google to pick them for their announced test of an ultra-fast broadband network.

Last month, Google said it will build experimental fiber-optic networks that will deliver Internet connections of 1 gigabit per second to as many as 500,000 Americans.

In order to capture the attention of the Internet giant, two cities in US, Topeka and Kansas renamed itself as 'Google' for the entire month of Mar 2010.

Don Ness, the mayor of Duluth posted a joke video on YouTube saying that first-born males in Duluth will be named 'Google Fiber' and first-born females 'Googlette Fiber'.

Ness also jumped into the freezing waters of Lake Superior in shorts and a T-shirt and posted the exploit on Google-owned YouTube.

Friday, Mar 26 was the deadline for communities across the country to submit their applications.

Google said the response has been 'tremendous and creative', with communities using everything from YouTube videos to Facebook groups to public rallies to promote themselves.

It further said that it will evaluate the applications over the next few months before coming to a decision on which community to work with.

The company will announce winners by the end of the year.

OneIndia News