Google names Cd'A an eCity
<p>Patrick Gerren, chief executive officer of Squirrel Books, an online accounting business, works from his laptop Monday at the Innovation Collective in Coeur d'Alene.</p>
COEUR d’ALENE — Google has named Coeur d’Alene a Google eCity and dubbed it the digital capital of Idaho in the process.
Google and independent research firm Ipsos MORI analyzed the online strength of local small businesses in cities in all 50 states. The city in each state with the highest score was designated a Google eCity, according to Google’s Economic Impact Report for 2015.
According to that report, Google provided $200 million in economic activity for Idaho businesses, website publishers and nonprofits in 2014.
To select the eCity in each state, Google used data from its AdWords data bank and population statistics to develop a way to measure the online business strength of Idaho companies.
The research team, Ipsos, took that data and generated a short list of the top five tech cities in each state.
Then researchers took a random sample of 51 small businesses in each community and analyzed their individual online presence and ability to conduct e-commerce. Coeur d’Alene’s businesses scored higher than the five other cities on the short list.
The authors of the report wrote:
“Those living in Coeur d'Alene are lucky enough to be on the shores of its eponymous lake, described by National Geographic as one of the five most beautiful lakes in the world, and boasting the world's first retractable floating golf course,” the report stated. “It's not all lakefront leisure though, as Coeur d'Alene is home to the Innovation Collective, which is working to develop a tech startup hub through a series of tech events like fireside chats with famous technologists, classes and more.”
Nick Smoot, co-founder of the Innovation Collective, said Google came up with the process and designation on its own.
“It’s pretty cool and they didn’t contact us at all,” Smoot said. “It was pretty nice of them to recognize the Innovation Collective is a catalyst for technology in our city.”
Smoot said the designation is significant because it shows the world that Coeur d’Alene is not only beautiful place to live but is also a tech-savvy community.
“For the next year we have the honor of being one of this nation’s digital capitals,” Smoot said. “That gives us a national presence and puts us on a list that people may use to decide where they want to relocate.”
Smoot said the report lists all of the eCities and compares Coeur d’Alene to places like Beverly Hills, Calif., and Kirkland, Wash., where Google is headquartered.
“This gives us a reason to take a certain amount of pride in our community,” he said.