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April Fools Day joke honors city’s adoration
Last month, Topeka City Officials renamed the city “Google, Kansas–The Fiber Optic City” in a bid to lure the largest search engine company to test its fiber-optic network in Topeka.
Google, recognizing Topeka’s commitment to garnering the attention of Google executives, rewarded the city of the Great Plains by changing the company’s name to Topeka.
Google CEO Eric Schmidt carried the April-Fools-Day hoax a step further in the company blog
“We didn’t reach this decision lightly; after all, we had a fair amount of brand equity tied up in our old name,” Topeka Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt wrote on The Official Google Blog. “Don’t be fooled. Even Google recognizes that all roads lead to Kansas, not just yellow brick ones.”
“Our news product names will take some getting used to. For instance, we’ll have to assure users of Topeka News and Topeka Maps that these services will continue to offer news and local information from across the globe.
For a day users didn’t perform Google searches, but instead Topeka searches.
Topeka Mayor Bill Bunten garnered international attention in March when he declared by proclamation that Topeka would change its name to the City of Google for the entire month.
“It’s just fun. We’re having a good time of it,” Bunten said in march. “There’s a lot of good things that are going on in our city.”
