We'll all be Google junkies by the time this is all over.

Mountain View users will push hard on the network and use it in different ways, which will generate more useful information than the more vanilla users in other parts of the country.

I will rename my cat Google???? How about a Google logo on Hangar One?

How about we all change our last names to:

Last Name-Google? :)

Then we are one big family!!

"Low Key" doesn't get the worm. What exactly is official Mt View doing to get our town nominated?? I mean beside hosting a Facebook page.

It's great for Mt View residents to nominate our city - and I have - but I think a it's very important for a local government pitch also.

See what Palo Alto is doing -

Web Link

They seem to be taking it much more seriously.

I'm with I_Love_Speed above... I'd like the City to do more than take a "low key approach". What a shame it would be loose to Palo Alto or any other city when we have the company headquartered here. Com'on Mayor, inspire the citizens to rise up. What will you leave as your legacy?

The community members will write in Mtn View, but I still think the Council should do something interesting. :)

Make a YouTube video - maybe singing & dancing - to show the City's support!!

C'mon Google... Show your continuing commitment to one of the greatest communities in the world, "beam" us into the future with fiber!

My sister lives in Sacramento and has SureWest fiber, it's awesome. I can only imagine what Google would do here in Mtn. View with fiber and Cisco's new CRS-3 routers with 322 Tbps of aggregate bandwidth.

Just received this from the CMU Alum Association, http://pittsburghgoesgoogle.com

"Meraki Networks, which aims to build WiFi networks for third-world countries has located in Mountain View"

But, Rengstorff Park already has Wifi.

Not cool.

reader -- If your "Not cool" comment was aimed at my quip about Rengstorff Park, read the Rolling with the Law article:

"Last summer, she said, her team consistently monitored a group of men who had developed a habit of drinking and urinating in Rengstorff Park."

If you have to set up a task force whose job it is to monitor drunk uninators for months, you have departed from the first-world.

We'll lose to Palo Alto and our council will still do whatever google tells them to. We get the gridlock, PA will get the speed.

Where to begin with USA. Your implication that only third-worlders urinate in public is borderline racist, but let's leave that aside -- I'm sure you're actually a real magnanimous sort of guy. Instead, let's reflect on the many times I, myself, with my own eyes, have seen drunken men urinating in public in Europe, i.e. the "first world."

Have you ever been outside the USA, USA? Or is it just the case that when "first worlders" act like "third worlders" the land they stand on magically becomes third world for a few minutes, before reverting back?

And what third world country sets up a goddam task force? You are a nightmare.

to USA - CMU graduate? I guess world class universities don't always turn out world classy people..

back on topic: from the Los Altos Town Crier - looks like another of our neighbors is being more proactive..

Google test could take place in Los Altos
Tuesday, 16 March 2010

Mountain View-based Google Inc. is scheduled to test ultra-high-speed broadband networks in trial cities across the country. Los Altos could serve as one of its test sites.

The Los Altos City Council March 9 directed city staff to respond to Google’s Request for Information, which gathers details on Los Altos and gauges community interest in the plan.

With a speed more than 100 times faster than current access allows, Google will experiment with fiber-to-home connections that enhance Internet usability.

“We’re excited about it,” said Russ Morreale, Los Altos finance director. “This could very well put us on the map as far as state-of-the-art technology level from a city’s standpoint.”

Although it is an exploratory step by Google, residents could reap benefits if Los Altos is chosen for the experiment, Morreale said, such as a unique broadband system for homes, an economic stimulus for the community and more options for residents.

“The fiber, if laid, would be an information highway that could be tapped into later for other purposes,” Morreale said.

The council formed a subcommittee, with Mayor David Casas and Councilman Ron Packard as members, to respond to Google in the future for any additional queries, site visits, location tours or meetings with city officials.

I have lived in the Bay Ara long enough to have heard the standard responses -- if you don't agree with the correct thinking you must be stupid and if there is any way possible to tie race into the issue no matter how twisted then you must be a racist. Just for the sake or originality, you guys ought to come up with something new. Really. Those retorts have just gone from lame to, well, stupid.

For the record, I have lived in South America where, yup, there are no public restrooms and the custom is to step into the nearest back alley or anywhere else out of public view for relief. And yes, once while I was in Europe late at night after hitting the pubs ...

Also, after graduating from Stanford I lived next to Rengstorff Park. It was an OK area. Since then, the area has deteriorated. Gangs have moved in. Drunks are commonplace at night. Google crime maps are covered with pushpins.

If it would make you happier, I could use some euphemism to describe the area such as a barrio, ghetto, or law-abiding-challenged community of first-generation-Americans-and-undocumented-Americans-struggling-against-their-oppressors. Just let me know what you like.

If you want to argue about how to clean up the area and how to prevent problems, fine. There is no point in shooting the messenger, though, if you do not like the message.

Tell you what, head over there Friday night and count the number of people drinking beer and the number using wifi then let us know the totals. Try the same test at Cuesta Park.

Oh ok, so "third world" is just some BS term that doesn't mean anything to you and you're just making all this up as you go. Fair enough.

For the record I am not one to use words like "racism" or "stupid" lightly, but remarks like yours deserve the proper descriptor. And by the way it's no stretch at all tying race into a disparaging remark about the "third world," which you ought to know if you've been there.

You can and will turn this or any push-back for your stupid (and yes, seemingly racist) remarks into a case of the poor "conservative" beset upon by dumb & predictable Bay Area "liberals." How predictable of you!

I'm all for finding solutions, and for not shooting messengers. Does your idea of finding a solution begin with insulting people in poor areas? I say the messenger could use some class.

Since I don't get the point of counting drinkers vs. wifi users (a measure of third vs. first world?) I'll let you do it.

Well, you got me there. I did insult drunks and public urineators by calling them third-worlders in a demeaning way. My bad.

BTW, while the indigenous peoples of South America survived better than those in North America during the period of European colonization, many of the people of present day South American are of European extraction or mixed European-Indian. I am sure you already knew that but though I should mention it as it does complicate that whole race card / race baiting retort.

Anyway, have a nice day.

Google is not a charity.

What Google want in return may not be in the form of cash. Moutain View has nothing to offer but tax incentive, so guess what is Google waiting for...

Also, city with lots of restriction on building permit may not be the right place. Who wants to wait months to get anything done.

For city officials, you gotta bend backward for google.

I find this entire competition to be the city chosen for the experiment absolutely disgusting. How long before our city stops being the Mountain View I grew up in and becomes entirely dependent on Google? Everybody needs to quit sucking up to this company and doing ridiculous things just because they want their town to be the next Googlesville. If our city wins I will not have any more to do with Mountain View, assuming Google doesn't change its name.

the heart of Silicon Valley where the "free" WiFi that Google provides is a complete joke. dialup is usually faster, even with my $120.00 ruckus metro gateway. And the service that google provides at the public library is shameful. As a brand, google rates well for internet search but fails terribly in providing internet service. How can I possible complain about a "free" service? It's like boasting about giving out free food, where the food is empty calories for the sake of self promotion. A company that has helped to drive the cost of everything in MV up to untoward "engineer" levels while earning astronomical sums quarterly... well, what's the right thing to do here, Google?