According to Brandchannel's fourth annual Reader's Choice Awards results, Google is once again the second most popular brand of the year, forfeiting the top position to Apple exactly as it did in 2002. Apparently the two companies are vying for recognition and brand dominance among Brandchannel's global audience.

In 2001, it was Apple, then the following two years, Google. Now, after a total of 1,984 brandchannel readers from 75 countries voted online between November and December 2004, Apple once again finds itself on top. This, however, was not the biggest surprise of the voting results.

More surprising was the appearance of Al Jazeera, the Arab News Channel whose sometimes graphic coverage of the ‘war on terror' made the most callous of us wince. It seems our search for news, like our search for any household product, truly has gone global, including all possible resources.

Brandchannel author Robin Rusch speculated, “I think people are tuning in to al-Jazeera and looking at its website because it does offer another viewpoint. For the global community, it's one of the few points of access we have to news from the region with a different perspective.”

This year's top global brand winners are listed in order of their importance, the most popular being first.

1. Apple
2. Google
3. Ikea
4. Starbucks
5. Al Jazeera

Brandchannel was established in 2001 as the world's only online exchange about branding. The Reader's Choice Awards aim at recognizing the brands that have the most impact – positive or negative – on consumers' lives. Global and regional brands differ. For more information and in-depth details of the selection process, please click here.