Google (I mean Topeka) Pulls a Nice April Fools Joke

So far this year the April Fools Jokes have been a bit of a gag, and I don’t mean that in a good way. Sure, some of them are pretty funny, but the majority of them don’t show too much creativity or originality.

Some might say that the same goes for Google. But from my perspective, the company is treating this “holiday” just right, and using it to spread word (and have fun with) of their services rather than just  make a lame joke. They know that the world is ready for them to do some crazy cool stuff, and don’t expect to actually fool anyone, so they go in a different direction with the announcements.

My favorite example so far – changing the company name to Topeka (after the city in Kansas.) It not only pokes a bit of fun at the dozens of companies in the last year that are changing their names and brands (RadioShack to The Shack, Comcast to XFinity), but it also points out some other cool things that are going on; namely that Google is bringing super-speed internet to several cities in America, and that Topeka changed its name to Google for one month.

I like it, and besides the ProBlogger, Qualcomm and the Pad Dock, this one is definitely a winner for 2010. Check out the list of others (bad and good) at TechCrunch.