Google Names Santa Rosa Beach as Florida's Digital Capital

[Kurt]

What do you think of this award from Google?

Congratulations, Santa Rosa Beach
Visitors to Santa Rosa Beach enjoy the sand and sun, and -- thanks to the strong web presence of its local businesses -- anyone can look up hotels, restaurants, and day activities before a vacation.

The first stage is based on Google adwords penetration per capita - i.e. "by dividing the total population of each city by the number of AdWords customers in that city".

But stage 2 is where it gets interesting, as the top five cities in each state are selected, and then 51 random businesses are ranked by scoring their online presence.


Read more here >

 

[Kurt]

2013 Winners

• AL - Madison
• AK - Homer
• AZ - Scottsdale
• AR - Bella Vista
• CA - Carlsbad
• CO - Boulder
• CT - Glastonbury
• DE - Bear
• FL - Santa Rosa Beach
• GA - Atlanta

• HI - Kailua Kona
• ID - Sandpoint
• IL - Oak Brook
• IN - Zionsville
• IA - West Des Moines
• KS - Lenexa
• KY - Lexington
• LA - Mandeville
• ME - Scarborough
• MD - Ocean City

• MA - Westborough
• MI - Walled Lake
• MN - Minnetonka
• MS - Ridgeland
• MO - Maryland Heights
• MT - Whitefish
• NE - Lincoln
• NV - Carson City
• NH - Amherst
• NJ - Princeton

• NM - Albuquerque
• NY - New York
• NC - Cary
• ND - Fargo
• OH - Solon
• OK - Edmond
• OR - Ashland
• PA - Exton
• RI - Middletown
• SC - N. Myrtle Beach

• SD - Sioux Falls
• TN - Hendersonville
• TX - Austin
• UT - Park City
• VT - South Burlington
• VA - Chantilly
• WA - Bainbridge Island
• WV - Charleston
• WI - Pewaukee
• WY - Casper

 

[Lake View Too]

Are we now going to change the name to WowWal? Seriously, your contribution to the community is what probably brought this about. Thanks, and congratulations.

 

[Beach Runner]

Are we now going to change the name to WowWal? Seriously, your contribution to the community is what probably brought this about. Thanks, and congratulations.

I agree. This is awesome.

 

[ktape]

SoWal should be very proud of it's contribution to making this happen.

 

[Leader of the Banned]

Are we now going to change the name to WowWal? Seriously, your contribution to the community is what probably brought this about. Thanks, and congratulations.

I think it was because of that other website BrawlWal or whatever those folks call it. Yup, that's what did it, for sure.

 

[Matt J]

Looks like a 30A sticker.

 

[Leader of the Banned]

I would put that on my car.

 

[Teresa]

We have many great business websites in South Walton! The original community site, founded in 2004, is here on SoWal.com! The growth of this site over the years has been extraordinary with such an active population of people living and visiting this area, contributing to and using SoWal.com to promote business, events, etc. It's a big group effort by a relatively small town.