Columbia wants Google's high-speed service

Columbia has joined the race for a new experimental fast Internet service known as Google Fiber.

How fast is it?

How about downloading a high-definition movie in the amount of time it will take you to read this story.

Google says its experimental Internet service will be 100 times faster than what most folks get now and will come at a competitive price.

Now the search-engine giant is looking for communities to test it.

Why not Columbia, S.C.?

"We have a good mix with the universities, the military, the hospitals," said Mandi Engram, marketing director at the Midlands Authority for Conventions, Sports & Tourism and a leader of the fiber fight.

"This will help us attract young professionals," she said Monday. "This would be huge for the knowledge economy here."

Engram said whatever town gets first crack at Google Fiber could become a hub to develop applications for the service.

"This would put us on the map," she said. "It would be the equivalent of getting Disney here."

Nominations from communities are due to Google by March 26. Google has not said how many communities it will select, though it expects to serve up to 500,000 people.

The Columbia-area is on the company's radar. Google has bought nearly 500 acres in Blythewood along I-77 for a proposed data center.

But the capital city has a lot of competition.

More than 100 cities have set up Facebook pages to support their efforts to land Google Fiber.

There are towns temporarily changing their names. Topeka, Kan., for example, has for the moment renamed itself Google, Kan.

And there are cities making parody videos. Duluth, Minn., has a fake mayor suggesting residents rename their first-born children Google or Google-ette Fiber.

Some fierce competition is coming not far from Columbia.

The folks in Greenville have started a campaign, "We're Feeling Lucky," named after the Google feature that picks one site from a search request.

The Greenville crowd has a YouTube channel with 16 videos of locals proclaiming they are "feeling lucky" about the chances of getting Google Fiber.

In one video, a fellow gets a Google logo shaved into his hair.

On Saturday night, Greenville plans to have what it calls the "first and longest human Google chain" on Main Street with people holding glow sticks.

What is Columbia doing to top that?

Local organizers have reworked the region's tourism marketing logo from "Columbia SC Famously Hot" to "Google Fiber Famously Hot Surprisingly Fast."

And at noon next Monday, Columbia Google Fiber advocates want everyone to post "Google Columbia, SC" on the social media accounts - Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn.

That will create buzz and get people asking questions about Google Fiber just a few days before the deadline, Engram said.

Fiber advocates also want popular Columbia sites to have links to the nominations of various cities seeking to land Google Fiber.

Google is taking nominations from people in the community but also wants to hear from local governments. Columbia City Manager Steve Gantt said Monday city grant writers are working on a proposal for Google Fiber.

"I hate not to try," Engram said. "Columbia can be in the mix. This is a huge opportunity to miss out on."