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GREENSBORO — If Facebook devotees count, then Greensboro has a strong contingent of residents who want to be part of Google’s proposed super-high-speed Internet service.

The founder of the Facebook group “Bring Google Fiber to Greensboro, NC! ” said Wednesday that his site has one of the highest numbers of members among similar informal groups that want to attract the Google test project to their cities.

Jay Ovittore said at a public city meeting that more than 2,000 people have subscribed to his page and that the number is growing hourly, a fact that underscores the enthusiasm of speakers at the Wednesday night forum.

About 15 people spoke before Assistant City Manager Denise Turner and other city officials who are assembling an application to Google.

Google has asked cities to apply by March 26 for a test of a fiber-optic system that Google wants to build. The company promises download speeds 100 times faster than what Greensboro residents have now. That’s 1 gigabyte per second — enough, speakers said Wednesday, to do computer tasks we haven’t even dreamed of yet.

Google wants to know how cities think they would benefit from its network, what kinds of experience cities already have with the Internet, and what kind of community support the project might have.

That support was obvious Wednesday night.

Alexander Jacobson, a Page High School student , said he takes university classes via the Internet, but download speeds are slow. Faster speeds would persuade more teachers to use the technology.

Derrick Giles, a businessman who runs an energy company , said Google is progressive with its use of energy-saving devices, and he might be able to get some business and create jobs with the new system.

“This is something that could be transformative for Greensboro,” said Roch Smith , who runs the local blog Greensboro 101 . The information economy would bring new jobs and a new type of worker to the area, he said.

Many questions remain about the project, including how much Google plans to invest, the cost for users of the service and the impact on other local providers, Turner said.

City Council members Danny Thompson, Nancy Vaughan and Robbie Perkins attended the meeting.

Perkins said he recently spoke with the head of a major radiology practice that is creating a database of medical images. A high-speed system could be useful for doctors who want instant access to those images throughout the region, he said.

Thompson, an early advocate of the project, said after the meeting that moving data quickly represents a logical evolution for a city that was built on progressive railways, highways and air shipping.

With the deadline only a month away, Turner said, the city will begin coordinating all the research. That includes working with potential builders of the system to interview educational, medical and other institutions about what they might do with super-high-speed Internet. The city will survey residents at www.greensboro-nc.gov/ google.

What’s at stake, Smith believes, is the economic and intellectual future of Greensboro. After the meeting, he said he recently got an e-mail from a young person who lives in another city.

“If you get Google Fiber,” the message said, “I will move back to Greensboro.”

Contact Richard M. Barron at 373-7371 or richard.barron@news-record.com