Google swallows Pot Noodle in battle of UK's brands

International internet Axis of non-Evil Google has topped a poll of the UK's "most-loved" brands, beating supermarket monolith Tesco and mobile phone behemoth Nokia into second and third places, respectively.

That's according to a probe of nearly 3,000 Brit consumers by marketing agency Joshua, which also revealed that eBay (4th) and Dell (6th) have found a place in the nation's affections - albeit one they have to share with washing powder brand Persil.

The results indicate an inexorable rise of tech companies in the battle for plebian hearts and minds, as Joshua director Matthew Howells explained: "One noticeable trend was the rise of technology companies among the most-loved brands. Amazon entered the top 50 at number 17, while eBay has come straight in as the fourth-favourite brand."

Britain's opprobrium was, meanwhile, reserved for Pot Noodle, which clinched top spot on the "most-hated" podium, although strongly pressed by second-placed shopping channel QVC. The Linux programmers' snack of choice saw off a strong international field boasting McDonald's and Sunny Delight and, rather inexplicably, Fiat.

Fast food and moderately fast cars were joined in the rankings by 3 and Tiny, representing the tech sector, while tabloids The Star and The Sun attracted their fair share of scorn. As might be expected, the clearly partisan, Persil-friendly pollees also singled out rival Novon for a shoeing. Here are those revealing results in full:

Top 10 loved (percentage of vote)

1. Google (31.6%)
2. Tesco (28.6%)
3. Nokia (21.9%)
4. eBay (19.2%)
5. Persil (18%)
6. Dell (17.4%)
7. Coca-Cola (16.9%)
8. Debenhams (15.5%)
9. British Airways (15.3%)
10. BBC One (15.2%)

Top 10 hated

1. Pot Noodle (20.6%)
2. QVC (19.2%)
3. Novon washing powder (15.2%)
4. McDonald's (14.8%)
5. Tiny (14.7%)
6. Fiat (13.6%)
7. 3 (13.4%)
8. The Star (13.4%)
9. Sunny Delight (12.9%)
10. The Sun (12.9%)

In related research, a Google trends search for "Pot Noodle" reveals the following nuclei of glutinous snack consumption...

1. Portsmouth
2. Manchester
3. Edinburgh
4. Milton Keynes
5. London
6. Sheffield
7. Bletchley
8. Poplar
9. Birmingham
10. Brentford

...while a similar query for "jailed Chinese cyberdissident" surprisingly returned no results. ®