Cities across the country are competing in an unofficial online poll for the title of "Most Deserving City" for Google's proposed super-fast fiber-optic network, and two heavy-hitters have quickly emerged: Asheville and Greenville, S.C. Right now, Greenville is ahead.
Participants in the month-long poll, which began Tuesday, can vote once per day. Right now, Greenville leads with 13,126 votes (37 percent of the total), while Asheville has 7,855 (22 percent). While there are 31 contenders for the prize, right now the two cities lead the pack by far.
Google's official nomination process closed late last month, but the crew at the unofficial Google Fiber site decided that "We want the most reactive, effort making and responsive city come out on top and win this Challenge, and we have chosen probably the best and simplest method for deciding the winner. Open Polling."
An April Fool's Day prank announce the creation of a "fiber mountain" connecting Asheville, Greenville and Johnson City, Tenn. Google (the official company) have announced that they probably won't declare the lucky city until September.
— David Forbes, staff writer
Participants in the month-long poll, which began Tuesday, can vote once per day. Right now, Greenville leads with 13,126 votes (37 percent of the total), while Asheville has 7,855 (22 percent). While there are 31 contenders for the prize, right now the two cities lead the pack by far.
Google's official nomination process closed late last month, but the crew at the unofficial Google Fiber site decided that "We want the most reactive, effort making and responsive city come out on top and win this Challenge, and we have chosen probably the best and simplest method for deciding the winner. Open Polling."
An April Fool's Day prank announce the creation of a "fiber mountain" connecting Asheville, Greenville and Johnson City, Tenn. Google (the official company) have announced that they probably won't declare the lucky city until September.
— David Forbes, staff writer
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Unofficial online polls are absolutely meaningless, and Google knows it. It's just their way of keeping the buzz going and keeping eager-beaver towns groveling before them until they come down from the mountain with their pronouncement of who will be blessed by their presence.
By Zulu
04/09/2010
Why is this guy's web site being promoted so heavily on twitter and local blogs? It's owned by some dude in India, has no bearing on Google's decision, and is generating ad revenue for whoever runs it.
He's running Adsense and Doubleclick, so if you really want to support the guy, keep returning, vote daily, and click his ads.
This is clearly a well-planned sham by someone taking advantage of buzz surrounding Google Fiber, and every tweet or blog mention it gets makes the "cha-ching" sound in the site owner's ears.
By The Imposter
04/09/2010
@The Imposter:
Most of Google's Code Monkeys live and work in India. They work far cheaper than Americans.
By Thunder Pig
04/09/2010
Are you suggesting the guy works for Google?
By The Imposter
04/09/2010
Are you suggesting the guy works for Google?
If teh google, an American-based multi-billion dollar company has to use their Indian "Code Monkeys" to register sites in India, well, then ... i've got some magic beans to sell you, thunder pig.
The Imposter- Are you really saying that the MX is pushing a story they didnt take two seconds to research first? Seems like someone might have some egg on their face.
By Piffy!
04/09/2010
There's a possibility that he is Google employee making a quick buck on the side, but the poll itself is a fugazi. I doubt Google will pay attention to it when they make their selection.
I've found a guy by the same name answering tech questions in Google Groups Help section and as a content contributor to several google labs projects. Of course, there are a billion or so Indians...so there's likely 30 or 40 guys that have the same name. ;)
I hope the guy makes a quick 2 or 3 grand before Google shuts him down. Or, if they were smart...they could use it keep the hype going.
By Thunder Pig
04/09/2010
@Thunder Pig
Just FYI, from what I researched, your statement about "most of Google's code monkeys" living and working in India was rather off-the-mark.
They do have an R&D center over there, but that's R&D, and isn't "most" of anything.
Google is pretty tight-lipped about the numbers and demographics of their employees (see here: http://www.readwriteweb.com/enterprise/2010/02/the-obama-administration-came.php)
So just how do you know most of their coders are in India?
By The Imposter
04/09/2010
2008 U.S.Census Bureau has Greenville County at 439,119 and Buncombe County at 229,047. Determinibg the ratio of vote per population, Asheville is ahead.
By who
04/09/2010
That, or more of our population has figured out how to run multiple web browsers on one computer, thus being able to vote multiple times.
By The Imposter
04/09/2010