The Forbes website reports on the latest survey of the world's most reputable companies, as surveyed by the Reputation Institute, a global private consulting firm based in New York. They assessed the strength of the world's 600 largest companies (by revenue) in their home countries and then consumers in 24 countries judged the 54 highest-rated companies, giving them ratings on their products and services, innovation, workplace, governance, citizenship, financial performance and leadership.

Google topped the list and demonstrated a strong source of innovation, as did second place Sony - both of which received consumer admiration for new technologies that touch consumers' lives. As the article reports, Google not only generated $6.7 billion in advertising revenue for the first quarter of 2010 (up 23% from the same time period last year), but they also offer free services, such as e-mail and maps, for anyone to use.

The survey indicated that another important factor in building global reputation is the appearance of transparency, a category won by Google. When the company pulled out of China to avoid showing censored search results to users there in late March, Google sent a message to the rest of the world that its values would be placed ahead of its profits. The decision resonated strongly in Central and Northern Europe, Central and South America and in North America, where consumers rated the company within the top five most-reputable businesses.