Minimalist Internet search engine Google has been voted "brand of the year" by branding junkies, proving once again that less is more as it pipped giants such as Coca-Cola and Starbucks to the top slot.
Google, the powerful search tool that presents Net surfers with a minimum of visual clutter, came top in a global poll of 1,315 respondents to a survey by Interbrand, the leading British branding agency.
The respondents, who were described as "above averagely intelligent" professionals and students from over 72 countries, were asked which brand had made the most impact on their lives in 2002, either positively or negatively.
Mountain View, California-based Google, a privately owned company founded in 1998, won 15 percent of the vote. I love the stuff but it ain"t widely available in the UK :(
Google was lauded for its reluctance to follow competitors such as MSN and Yahoo down the road of providing a more comprehensive -- and by extension more cluttered -- Web interface.