Smartphones, city rankings and Ann Arbor

Because I believe the smartphone and mobile web are remaking the economy, business, culture, power and opportunity, it seems obvious that the smartphone and mobile web will remake our existing economic centers; cities. That's why in 2009, I started a City Rankings effort. But rather than ranking cities based on factors such as wealth or livability, I ranked them on those factors that I thought would enable them to maximize the transformative economic power of the smartphone.

My mother always told me I was special. My mother does not lie. Still, special or not, I"m but one humble blogger. That's why my city rankings have focused on larger cities. There's just not enough time in the day. However, because I wanted to pick one university town, since those are typically the best places to live in the US, I chose Ann Arbor, MI. Just over a year ago, I reviewed the city and it scored a '32'. Which is very good given its size.

All of which is a long way of saying: told you so! Because today I find out that the founders of Groupon, the co-founder of Google and the CEO of Twitter got their start in Ann Arbor. If the city can just keep those people there, it will score even higher in the rankings.

[Okay, confession: I knew that one of the co-founders of Google went to University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.]