LinkBack URL
About LinkBacksWTF? Google changed their name?
Yes for today, Google is now Topeka, they changed it to honor a city in Kansas. The city of Topeka in Kansas all of a sudden has changed their name to Google...
Click the link above to see the story with a few pictures as proof...A different kind of company name
4/01/2010 12:01:00 AM
Early last month the mayor of Topeka, Kansas stunned the world by announcing that his city was changing its name to Google. We’ve been wondering ever since how best to honor that moving gesture. Today we are pleased to announce that as of 1AM (Central Daylight Time) April 1st, Google has officially changed our name to Topeka.
We didn’t reach this decision lightly; after all, we had a fair amount of brand equity tied up in our old name. But the more we surfed around (the former) Topeka’s municipal website, the more kinship we felt with this fine city at the edge of the Great Plains.
In fact, Topeka Google Mayor Bill Bunten expressed it best: “Don’t be fooled. Even Google recognizes that all roads lead to Kansas, not just yellow brick ones.”
For 150 years, its fortuitous location at the confluence of the Kansas River and the Oregon Trail has made the city formerly known as Topeka a key jumping-off point to the new world of the West, just as for 150 months the company formerly known as Google has been a key jumping-off point to the new world of the web. When in 1858 a crucial bridge built across the Kansas River was destroyed by flooding mere months later, it was promptly rebuilt — and we too are accustomed to releasing 2.0 versions of software after stormy feedback on our ‘beta’ releases. And just as the town's nickname is "Top City," and the word “topeka” itself derives from a term used by the Kansa and Ioway tribes to refer to “a good place to dig for potatoes,” we’d like to think that our website is one of the web's top places to dig for information.
In the early 20th century, the former Topeka enjoyed a remarkable run of political prominence, gracing the nation with Margaret Hill McCarter, the first woman to address a national political convention (1920, Republican); Charles Curtis, the only Native American ever to serve as vice president (’29 to ‘33, under Herbert Hoover); Carrie Nation, leader of the old temperance movement (and wielder of American history’s most famous hatchet); and, most important, Alfred E. Neuman, arguably the most influential figure to an entire generation of Americans. We couldn’t be happier to add our own chapter to this storied history.
A change this dramatic won’t happen without consequences, perhaps even some disruptions. Here are a few of the thorny issues that we hope everyone in the broader Topeka community will bear in mind as we begin one of the most important transitions in our company’s history:
Correspondence to both our corporate headquarters and offices around the world should now be addressed to Topeka Inc., but otherwise can be addressed normally.
Google employees once known as “Googlers” should now be referred to as either “Topekers” or “Topekans,” depending on the result of a board meeting that’s ongoing at this hour. Whatever the outcome, the conclusion is clear: we aren’t in Google anymore.
Our new 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. Topeka Talk, similarly, is an instant messaging product, not, say, a folksy midwestern morning show. And Project Virgle, our co-venture with Richard Branson and Virgin to launch the first permanent human colony on Mars, will henceforth be known as Project Vireka.
We don’t really know what to tell Oliver Google Kai’s parents, except that, if you ask us, Oliver Topeka Kai would be a charming name for their little boy.
As our lawyers remind us, branded product names can achieve such popularity as to risk losing their trademark status (see cellophane, zippers, trampolines, et al). So we hope all of you will do your best to remember our new name’s proper usage:
Finally, we want to be clear that this initiative is a one-shot deal that will have no bearing on which municipalities are chosen to participate in our experimental ultra-high-speed broadband project, to which Google, Kansas has been just one of many communities to apply.
Official Google Blog: A different kind of company name
Results 1 to 10 of 10
Thread: Google name change
- 01 Apr. 2010 10:39pm #1
Google name change
- 01 Apr. 2010 10:41pm #2
LOL i.i <>
- 01 Apr. 2010 10:43pm #3
Are you srs?!?! Lolololol
oh god there is no way this is an april fools joke
- 01 Apr. 2010 10:48pm #4
Its April fools look at the forum leaders googles name is Google
- 01 Apr. 2010 10:53pm #5
- 01 Apr. 2010 11:00pm #6 No shit. April fools, friend. :p
Originally Posted by Eternal Darkness 
There have actually been a few pretty cool ones. Your April Fools' Day Prank Spoiler - Pranks - Lifehacker
- 01 Apr. 2010 11:26pm #7
im glad its an april fools joke
+Rep if I helped
My FMP Shop
PM me about the FLPs or FLWs
I don't check store often
Also selling Gaia Accounts for USD via Paypal
Send me a PM for more info
- 02 Apr. 2010 12:01am #8
That is very stupid lol.
Originally Posted by Defy Originally Posted by Rundeer Originally Posted by Jdawg
- 02 Apr. 2010 12:57am #9Administrator
Global Moderator Literally Hitler
Morbidly Obese
Bird Jesus
- Age
- 35
- Join Date
- Nov. 2009
- Location
- The Land Of Ooo
- Posts
- 8,569
- Reputation
- 711
- LCash
- 100.00
- Awards
Dude, Topeka changed their name like a few months ago to try and get google to base some insane project out of their city. Thus the joke and interesting way of telling Topeka that they're gonna base the project there. Yay current events.
Originally Posted by Raivu
Originally Posted by La Vie Cruelle Originally Posted by La Vie Cruelle
- 02 Apr. 2010 01:06am #10Global Moderator LG Veteran
- Age
- 33
- Join Date
- Mar. 2007
- Location
- Death Star
- Posts
- 6,682
- Reputation
- 757
- LCash
- 100.00
- Awards
This is retarded. Theres not really a whole lot that can be said about it, but this whole thing is just beyond the edge of WTF.
Seriously, this whole thing has turned into a big fest of total dumbasses trying to get publicity for places that dont matter with a search engine that probably needs a stock boost.
Whole thing = publicity stunt fail.Voted Hottest Male Member
Crowned King of Logical Gamers
10 Years of Logical Service.
