Google pledged to unveil the winner of its Google Fiber initiative by the end of the year, but that date has now slipped into 2011. For the cities so eager to host the project that they even changed their name, the delay may be frustrating—but Google says it’s simply due to the overwhelming demand.

Earlier this year, Google announced an ambitious plan to pick one US community and wire it with 1Gbps fiber, then make that new fiber network “open access” (any Internet provider could sell service on it).

The announcement unleashed pent-up demand for world-class broadband networks among midsize US communities. Many immediately resorted to carnival-hawker tactics; the city of Topeka changed its name to Google, Kansas, while a Raleigh, North Carolina city council member offered to name his unborn twins Sergey and Larry Gaylord if Raleigh got the nod.

In today’s announcement, Google’s new head of the fiber project, Milo Medin, said that the company “had planned to announce our selected community or communities by the end of this year, but the level of interest was incredible—nearly 1,100 communities across the country responded to our announcement—and exceeded our expectations. While we’re moving ahead full steam on this project, we’re not quite ready to make that announcement.”

Submissions remain closed, but Google will need a few more months to make its decision.

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Google delays its 1Gbps fiber announcement