Stephen Cheliotis

Around 2,200 consumers and an expert council voted Google into first place.  Microsoft scored second, which both gives Google "I beat you" bragging rights and throws the Superbrand voting results into question.  But the other brands in the top five – Mercedez-Benz, the BBC, British Airways – are more natural fits.

Stephen Cheliotis, the chairman of the Superbrands Council, explained to the BBC, "The results are . . . a further sign that Google is continuing its dominance in the UK.  It is clear that Google is the brand that people value at work and in their personal lives."

BMW, Nike and Sony squeezed into the top ten, with dear old Guinness grabbing spot number twenty-three.  Yahoo was down in 75th place, YouTube appeared as superbrand number 239, and none of the other companies we typically cover (or randomly mention) appeared among the top 250 results.

Monday morning or not, we’re betting Larry, Sergey, and Eric are in pretty good moods at the moment.

    Superbrand’s Top 10
    Businesses

Yes, thanks to Superbrands, a survey of 1,500 professionals, and "a council of senior business leaders," Google got the top spot on yet another list, and Microsoft followed right behind.  Anyone who wants to argue the matter should consider issues of quality, reliability, and distinction, as those were the basis for all ratings.

Another company we regularly cover – Apple – showed up in eleventh place.  eBay appeared as number 43, and as 102 out of 500, Yahoo did reasonably well.

We were going to cut things off at this point – a company that can’t make the top 105 or so can still be perfectly strong, but it’s not exactly generating news.  In 176th place we found Getty Images, however, and this seemed worth a mention due to its $2 billion acquisition.

Want the rest of the Superbrands list?  Barry Schwartz, to whom we owe a hat tip, was kind enough to link to the PDF.  Keep Google or Wikipedia open in another window, as some of the top 500 aren’t exactly well known in America.