Welcome to Googleville?

Cities are competing to host the tech giant's ultra-fast Internet network

Scott Barbour / Getty Images

It would have been easy to mistake the thousands of people assembled in Greenville clutching their colored glow sticks and chanting the name of an all-knowing entity for worshippers at some sort of kooky New Age outdoor revival. But it wasn't God who inspired this crowd of 2,200 to gather on a recent Saturday night. It was Google — and the chance that this South Carolina city might be able to coax down the manna of super-high-speed Internet from tech-giant heaven.

Since Google unveiled plans in February to build — for free...

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