A recent study produced for ABC by Langer Research Associates suggests Google (News - Alert) and Apple are America's number one and two ranked tech companies, respectively. A remarkable 82 percent of Americans polled on their opinions of a handful of major tech companies — Google, Apple, Facebook, Twitter (News - Alert) — expressed a favorable opinion of the search giant. Apple trails at 74 percent, according to the source.
Facebook came in third in favorable opinion at 58 percent, while Twitter came in last place at a mere 34 percent. Twitter also had 36 percent expressing dislike for the social networking service. In comparison, Apple and Facebook (News - Alert) only had 14 percent of those polled express an unfavorable opinion, while Google sat at nine percent.
Google also had the most people express a "strongly" favorable opinion of the company at 53 percent, again beating Apple (News - Alert), which only received 37 percent "strongly" favorable responses. This isn't exactly a huge surprise though, as Google and Apple both dominate the smartphone market with their recent success in smart devices.
Meanwhile, Google's dominance in the search engine market may just be the major factor cementing its place in number one, while continually producing free online service like Gmail, Google Maps and Google+, which recently received a revamp. Or perhaps it is the company's positive public face, with the informal motto of "don't be evil" poking fun at the typical view of big corporations as being heartless and interested only in profit.
Apple not being the leader in popularity is a bit of a surprise, having cornered the tablet market with its extremely popular iPad, while at the same time amassing a sizable group of passionate Apple devotees. After all, few companies can claim that their CEO is almost a celebrity the way Steve Jobs (News - Alert) continues to be even after his death last October.
The ABC News/Washington Post poll was conducted over the phone, both landline and cell phone, between March 28 and April 1 2012, sampling a random national group of 1,007 adults. The margin for error is 3.5 points.