Welcome to Google, Kansas

On Monday, Topeka, Kansas Mayor William Bunten issued a proclamation declaring that for the month of March, the city will be known as Google, Kansas. The temporary name change comes in an effort to bring Google's "Fiber for Communities" program to the capital city.

The "Fiber for Communities" initiative was created by Google to provide ultra-high speed broadband internet connection to a number of trial location across the country. The internet connections provided by the program are capable of transferring over 1 gigabit per second, more than 100 time faster than most widely-used internet providers. Submissions for the program are being accepted until the end of March, and Topeka has become one of the most visible candidates to house the experiment.

Taken from the official Google blog, one of the goals of the "Fiber for Communities" project is unlock the potential of tech developers by providing them with unparalleled connectivity. "We want to see what developers and users can do with ultra high-speeds," write Google's Mindie Ingersoll and James Kelly, "whether it's creating new bandwidth-intensive 'killer apps' and services, or other uses we can't yet imagine." Topeka is hoping these offerings will help retain and attract young professionals to stay in the city.

In his proclamation, Mayor Bunten writes " Google's commitment to innovation depends on everyone being comfortable sharing ideas and opinions coupled with the belief that every employee is an equally important part of its' success [which] mirrors the City of Topeka's belief that every citizen is an important part of the city's success."

An official statement from the city of Topeka echoed Mayor Bunten's enthusiasm about the possibility of bringing the program to Kansas. "The City of Topeka welcomes the opportunity to participate in this unique technological experiment," it reads, "if selected as Google trial community, to benefit our citizens in providing all opportunities to access Internet Technologies."

The renaming isn't without precedent in Topeka, as the city was briefly given the moniker ToPikachu (a nod to the Pokemon character, Pikachu) after first introducing the Japanese card game to the U.S. in the late nineties.

Google is accepting application for the program through March 26 and plans to announce its first target communities this year.