Follow the yellow brick road, follow the yellow brick road, follow, follow, follow, follow, follow the yellow brick road to Google, Kansas?

Last month, Mayor Bill Bunton of Topeka, Kansas declared that the city would be rebranding to be known as Google, Kansas. This decisions was made because of Google’s call out for cities who wanted to be considered for the new “Fiber for Communities” program. This past February, Google announced that it was going to create an experimental fiber network in one community in the United States.

Bidding to be that City ended March 26 and the winner of the pilot program will be announced by the end of the year.  While at first Google declined to comment on the Topeka rebranding, anyone who opened their browser today and went to Google was met with another rebranding:

What great exposure for the town that was formerly Topeka.  Though it won’t last forever as this was just a month long endeavor for the City, it may have really given them a leg up in the competition.  How many brands can say that they convinced a global web tycoon to change their name, like Topeka did?

If you opened your gmail today you were surprised with a new feature to your account – Google Buzz. Google developed an app that was automatically added to everyone’s gmail accounts that is a lot like Twitter but will, in our opinion, have mixed reviews. No setup is needed as it automatically followed the people you email and chat with the most on Gmail. It gives you security features that allows you to share publicly or privately and connects to sites you already use. This way you can share photos, updates and more!
We want to know what you think of Google Buzz!

Google released yesterday that their social search is now in beta for all to use! Check out this great video that will tell you a little more about what Google has done to enhance searches.