Google passes over Duluth for Kansas City, Kan.

Google has announced that it will build its experimental fiber internet network in Kansas City, Kansas, not in Duluth, Minnesota, or one of the 1,000 other cities that applied for consideration. Duluth, Topeka, Memphis, Grand Rapids, Mich., and a few others made serious bids for the project that included community support projects and publicity stunts.

Duluth Mayor Don Ness, for instance, jumped into a frozen Lake Superior.

Rumors had the project going to Kansas because, among other reasons, the fiber technology performs better on flat land and in more temperate climates.

Hey, tornadoes. You know what to do.

Meantime, local internet providers breath a sigh of relief. Let us hope that the next thing they do is modernize the internet infrastructure of northern Minnesota so that this unique region becomes competitive over the next 20 years. And, of course, if Google’s technology works and becomes market viable, we might yet see Google Fiber in Duluth, and everywhere.

This is a disappointing day on one hand, but on the other the quick mobilization of new ideas for the Google Twin Ports project shows that such energy exists and can be harnessed for the future.

Google, we are so going to lose weight and make you jealous.

Hey, Apple. How you doin’?

UPDATE: I just remembered that Duluth lost its minor league baseball Dukes to Kansas City, Kansas, several years ago. What gives?

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