Every year on April 1, Google plays an April Fools' trick on its users. The company has pulled pranks such as announcing plans to launch a broadband wireless service that uses sewers as its infrastructure, and revealing that pigeons were the secret sauce behind its search technology.

This year was no exception. Yesterday Google announced it has changed its name to Topeka, in honor of the city in Kansas, according to the prank. This name change was inspired by the town's announcement in March that it would change its name to Google, in hopes of attracting the search giant to make its broadband network available in the town. Google said the best way to honor Topeka was to take its name.

"We didn't reach this decision lightly; after all, we had a fair amount of brand equity tied up in our old name. But the more we surfed around (the former) Topeka's municipal website, the more kinship we felt with this fine city at the edge of the Great Plains," reads a blog post written by chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt.

Google employees that were once called Googlers should now be called Topekers or Topekans, said Schmidt, adding that a board meeting was being held to determine which one. And the blog said the correct terminology for using the company's search engine would be "I did a Topeka search on him," as opposed to "I Topeka'ed him," "I topeka'd him," or worst of all "I topeka'ed him with AltaVista."

In the end, however, Schmidt warned that the name change would have no bearing on which cities the company chooses to involve in its broadband network project.

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