Google Names The City of Albany A 2015 eCity

December 14, 2015

eCity LogoThe City of Albany was named one of Google’s 2015 eCity award winners. On Dec. 14 Google recognized Albany as one of the nation’s top cities for small business ingenuity online and as the digital capital of New York State. Representatives from Google were joined by City of Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan, Congressman Paul Tonko and members of the Albany business community who gathered at Cider Belly Doughnuts in downtown Albany to celebrate becoming one of Google’s designated digital capitals. To view photos from the City of Albany’s celebration, visit our Facebook page here. 

Google and independent research firm, IPSOS, analyzed the online strength of local small businesses in cities in all fifty states. The research firm looked at a variety of factors to determine the leading cities and towns across the U.S., including the likelihood of small businesses to have a website, use a blog, promote themselves on a social network, sell goods directly from their webpages and whether they had a mobile-friendly website. The winning cities exhibited strong engagement and potential for growth within the digital economy. IPSOS researched almost 13,000 small businesses in the US 51 for each of the top five cities in each state to determine this year’s winners. Small businesses comprise half the U.S. GDP and create two thirds of all new jobs. Businesses that are online grow twice as fast and hire twice as many employees as businesses that are offline. 97% of internet users look online for products and services.