For a state so mired in its economic past, the news that Google is coming is an important herald of the future. This is not just about 1,000 jobs -- although every one of them is welcome news -- but about 1,000 of the kind of jobs that signal Michigan is more than just a manufacturing state.

Free Press business columnist Tom Walsh reports today that Google plans to put the headquarters of its AdWords unit in Ann Arbor. Google is the Internet's premier search engine, and AdWords is its major source of revenue.

Michigan already has a substantial high-tech workforce, but most of it is tied to the auto industry, which, despite the abundance of electronics in a modern motor vehicle, doesn't quite have the 21st Century cachet of Google.

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