Google is the no. 1 brand according to the 2007 Millward Brown Brandz report.
They also still have humour. Go to Google maps, click get directions, add washington, dc as the from and london, uk the to.
Check out direction 21. SWIM across the Atlantic. Genius.
I also didn’t know the original name for Google was Rubback which sounds a bit filthy.
Sources: Guardian for the serious stuff and Tammy Molden for the fun stuff