Scunthorpe is the most digital-embracing town in Britain, according to research from Google.

Google has awarded Scunthorpe the title of Britain’s eTown, the UK locale that saw the strongest growth in AdWords use over the last year. The search giant ranked cities across Europe by how much the internet played a role in growth. Google claims the results showed the importance of the web to towns outside the big cities of Europe, with the web driving small business in unlikely hotspots. Scunthorpe, known for its iron and steel industry was at the top of 20 towns named in the UK for seeing growth in small businesses using Google’s advertising platform. The largest city on the list was Manchester, and none of the 20 areas named were in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland – although Douglas in the Isle of Man did get a mention.

Google said it ranked thousands of towns in Britain, France, Italy and Poland according to the growth in small businesses using AdWords over the past year, showing how the web drives growth of both big and small businesses.

European communications manager at Google, Ben Novick said, "It’s often assumed that big cities benefit the most from the internet, but we believe the net offers giant opportunities to everyone from urbanites to small town residents, farmers and nature lovers in the far-flung countryside. We recently tested this thesis in our first-ever European Google eTown awards, which recognize those areas that had most embraced the web’s potential over the last year.”

Scunthorpe might seem like an odd choice, since it has legendary problems with internet filters given its name. Nevertheless, with the steel industry in decline, there’s hope that web-driven growth might stem the decline.