Googleville!

Google On Main!

Why haven’t we posted about this before?!

It’s old news to many now (mostly because it was announced a month ago) that Google is going to provide ultra-highspeed Internet access in one or more trial communities. Their marketing documents claim the access will be available in 1 Gbps speeds and beyond which sounds too good to be true!

Greenville, G-Vegas, Beloved Home is vying to be Google’s fiber test-ground.

If we’re chosen the benefits for the city are virtually limitless. To get Google’s attention, the city is organizing a demonstration tomorrow evening. Thousands of Greenvillians are assembling armed with LED glow sticks in different colors behind the Peace Center and marching down to Falls Park on the Reedy River to form the word “Google.” Helicopters will film all this from above, and I anticipate a virtual downtown block party when they finish. I don’t have many other details, but I’ve heard there will be much more to it. Will and I will try to be on-site with a camera to document the event. I’d love to take part but with my recent MS attack I don’t think I’m reliable enough to make the walk. As I joked last night, from a helicopter I would look like a lost packet hobbling around trying to find a bench. I really want one of these reusable glow sticks though.

Greenville Online has reported on this a little and the official site for the event is WeAreFeelingLucky.com, a reference to Google’s “I’m Feeling Lucky” search feature.

Greenville was also one of the highlighted cities in this article. According to this, our competition is :

• Columbia, Missouri who held up signs during a basketball game. We watched this game and I missed this completely.
• Grand Rapids, Michigan who is organizing a flash mob fiber ring of people holding hands.
• Peoria, Illinois who sang a song and taped themselves doing it.
• Topeka, Kansas who renamed their city to Google for the month of March.
• Sarasota, Florida who renamed City Island to Google Island.
• Duluth, Minnesota who organized a Googlefest and dunked their mayor into Lake Superior.

Sure, we’re biased because we live here, but we love Greenville, SC and I can’t think of a better place for a Google Fiber Trial. We have tons of cool businesses already in the area (Michelin, BMW, iCar, Windstream) not to mention some big businesses coming in that will bring a lot of new jobs. Greenville, SC was also rated the #1 Micro City in the United States in the 2009/2010 North American Cities of the Future. Check out the links and come support Greenville!

UPDATE : We missed the event entirely (my fault), but here’s a great photo gallery showing some of what went down. I’m keeping my fingers crossed!

Greenville loves Google!

Great job on the logo!