MADISON, Wis. -- Madison submitted its application to Google Friday in a bid to get the company to test its new fiber-optic network in the city.

Friday was the deadline for communities around the country to make their pitch for the Google Fiber project. The new network is expected to be more than 100 times faster than current Internet connections.

Madison residents and leaders have come together in an attempt to bring Google Fiber to Madison. The city has a Google ice cream flavor, a Facebook page with 4,500 fans and now even a Google pizza.

The Roman Candle in Madison is the home of the Fiber-Tron pizza, topped with all the Google colors, including plenty of vegetables for fiber. The pizza will be on the menu until the final city is announced. People who stopped in Friday got one of the first tastes of Google.

"We came to take part in some of the fiber-licious pizza," said Robert Miller, of Madison.

Mayor Dave Cieslewicz said the pizza is one more promotion, one more reason, for Google to choose Madison. . "I think all of that stuff is useful because it tells Google we're the kind of community that's really excited about this, really wants it," said Cieslewicz.

Many Madison residents who turned out for pizza Friday said they want the Google Fiber network.

"Madison is rated a great place to live in a lot of different magazines, and this would just be one more thing that makes it a great town to live in," said Barb Miller, of Madison.

"Obviously we're pretty excited," added Robert Miller, of Madison.

The Web site promoting Google Fiber in Madison, madfiber.net, has almost 650 users showing their support.

"I very much hope we're on the short list of cities and that we will show what Madison can really do if Google's brought here," said Scott Resnik, who helped launch the Web site.

With the excitement of the city behind him, Cieslewicz clicked the "submit" button for the city's online application Friday, and Madison entered the official race.

Google has not given a timeline for when it will announce a short list of finalists or how many cities will be on that list. For supporters, all that's left to do now is wait.

"We hit the submit button and then we wait and see," said Resnik. "We have no time frame for the exact application to come back, but I think we've put in a very, very competitive bid."

The mayor said he hopes an announcement about the short list will be made sometime this spring or early summer.