It looks like the concepts of free food, dogs at work, and 20 percent time (among other things) haven’t lost their appeal.  Universum, a company that specializes in employer branding, has again declared Google the "world’s most attractive employer."

Cynics should know that Universum didn’t just jump to that conclusion on its own.  Instead, its ratings are based on a survey of almost 130,000 "career seekers" in Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Russia, Spain, the U.K., and the U.S., all of whom are supposed to have engineering or business backgrounds.

What’s more, the matter wasn’t a particularly close call, with Google winning in both the engineering and business categories.

As for how some other tech companies did, well, Yahoo and eBay didn’t appear on either list.  But Microsoft got second place in the engineering category and seventh place in the business category, which isn’t bad.

Apple, meanwhile, won tenth place in the engineering category and 18th place in the business category.

Congratulations to all these companies.  Congratulations, for that matter, to everyone who’s managed to secure a job with them, as well.