Surprise: Google Most Valuable Brand

Here’s a shocker for anyone who’s ever “Googled” anything regardless of what search engine they were actually using: Google is the most powerful brand in the world for the third year in a row.

Coming in at number seven and 51 respectively in the BrandZ Top 100 Most Powerful Brands, Apple and RIM’s BlackBerry grew the most in brand value over the past year, according to a National Post report.

Google’s brand is valued at some $86.1 billion, a healthy step ahead of number-two General Electric’s $71.4 billion.

Market researcher Millward Brown compiled the survey from more than a million consumer interviews and some financial data. The complete survey results are available here.

Join Baratunde Thurston (left), The Onion’s Director of Digital and author of How to Be Black, for an entertaining look at creative social media campaigns in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. Other speakers include Morin Oluwole (Facebook), Tim Devane (bitly), and SocialTimes' writer Devon Glenn.   Register now.