MOBILE, Alabama -- Online search giant Google Inc. has picked Mobile as the launching pad for a new initiative aimed at getting more businesses to create mobile versions of their websites.

"They're playing off the name Mobile," said Rich Sullivan, president of Red Square Agency, which is organizing the event for Google. "The end result is they want to make us the most mobile city in the U.S."

The event, known as Mobilizing Mobile, will start Nov. 14, Sullivan said.

Mountain View, Calif.-based Google will open up a storefront in downtown Mobile, Sullivan said.

Business owners will be able to walk in and get a free mobile-optimized version of their website set up in about half an hour, he said. Google will also pay to host the mobile websites for a year, Sullivan said.

Mobile-optimized websites are simplified versions of regular sites that are easier to read when accessed on smart phones and small-screened tablets.

Google’s Android operating system is the most popular smart phone platform in the world, with about 190 million users.

The event will launch a broader mobile-website initiative for Google, known as GoMo, Sullivan said. Sullivan said he did not have any more details about that program.

Google representatives could not be reached for comment.

The tech news site Fusible.com published a story on Saturday noting that Google had launched a website called HowtoGoMo.com, although it remains password protected.

"Where the web is going, everything is pushing toward mobile devices," Sullivan said. "It’s in Google’s best interest to have destinations on the web that are optimized for viewing on those devices."

The storefront will be at Space 301, across the street from Cathedral Square, said Carol Hunter, spokeswoman for the Downtown Mobile Alliance.

It will be open for a few days, and business will be served on a first-come, first-served basis, Sullivan said. Google is teaming with another Mountain View company, Duda Mobile, to build the websites, he said.

Having a city that shares a name with a tech buzzword hasn’t always been fortuitous, as anyone who has searched online for "Mobile phone company" or "Mobile apps" could tell you. Not to mention all the time residents spend telling out-of-towners that they are from "Mo-beel," not "Mo-buhl," Hunter said.

"This is one instance where our association with the mobile world is really helping us," she said.

Hunter said she expected many businesses and nonprofits — including hers — to take advantage of Google’s offer. Paying a developer to build a mobile website can cost thousands of dollars, she said.

"If you are not thinking about getting mobile with your website, then in the near future you’re going to be behind," Hunter said. "This is an opportunity for us to really be ahead of that curve."

In addition to organizing the Mobilizing Mobile event, Red Square will also host a private event Nov. 14 for marketing professionals around the Southeast, featuring guest speakers talking about the future of the mobile web, Sullivan said.

Red Square, Mobile’s largest advertising firm, recently won a national Online Media Marketing and Advertising Awards for a series of fun Facebook ads it ran earlier this year. Sullivan said that exposure, along with several other digital projects, put his company in position to work with Google.

"It’s a culmination of a lot of little things," he said. "It was humbling to be contacted by them."