According to the yearly Brandchannel.com survey recognizing the brands that have had the most impact (negative or positive) on our lives, Google is no longer the top brand, the Search Giant slipped to second place after two years of being in the top spot. Apple Computer now takes the top spot after a total of 1,984 brandchannel readers(very low number) from 75 countries voted online between November and December 2004. BrandChannel said "It's hard to imagine a brand having a shinier year than Apple. Notably punctuated with iMacs, iPods and iTunes, Apple's 2004 presence was felt in the press, in ads and on the streets, with iPod coming to define the word "ubiquitous." Coupled with strong revenue, Apple reported a net profit of US$ 295 million in the last quarter of 2004 alone and a 2004 overall net income growth of 300 percent. Yes, 300 percent.
At Apple's core is great innovation, beautiful design and an ability to bring warmth and passion to those who may be completely incurious about technical gadgetry but need it nonetheless to survive in today's world."
via WebProNews
On Google - "Not far behind Apple, and equally appealing to those navigating a potentially complicated technical landscape, is Google.
The world's number one search engine, Google's impact on our readers reflects the online public's growing dependence on sorting through an incomprehensible amount of available information. On our screens, its minimalist design betrays its maximal capacity. But Google does more, including technology licensing, news aggregating and shopping (Froogle). According to the company, 95 percent of revenue comes from AdSense advertising.
Google lost little ground in being dumped as the search engine behind Yahoo early last year; it conducts more than 200 million searches a day and leads the world for search engine usage with 57 percent of the current market, followed by Yahoo at 21 percent and MSN at just 9 percent.
Largely based on functional attributes, which offer clarity in a complex field, Google is by no means invincible. It faces competition on many fronts including Yahoo's Overture search engine and other solutions like Vivisimo's Clusty, and MSN Desktop Search, all of which hope to build a better mousetrap."
