Washington - Google beats out rivals Apple and Facebook when it comes to the all-important game of reputation, continuing its place on top of a Washington Post-ABC News poll measuring how respondents feel about some of the country's top tech firms.
The poll shows that 83 percent of American adults contacted on cellphones and landlines have a “favourable” view of the Mountain View, Calif., company, compared to 72 percent for Apple and 60 percent for Facebook.
The overall results are similar to responses that users gave last year, when a Washington Post-ABC News poll found that Google had an 82 percent favourable rating, Apple 74 percent and Facebook 58 percent. All those changes are within the 3.5 percentage point margin of error on the poll.
Digging into the demographic information shows how different people view each of the companies.
Google has fairly strong ratings across all age and ethnic groups and salary levels, with its lowest favourable rating coming from users over 65. They gave the company a 64 percent favourable rating.
Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 tended to have higher goodwill toward the tech firms. But Apple's standing with users under the age of 30 dropped significantly from last year's poll. The iPhone and iPad maker has a 71 percent favourable rating with the youngest respondents, down from last year's 81 percent rating.
Facebook is still far more popular among the youngest users polled - favourable ratings outnumber unfavourable by 3 to 1 for 18- to 29-year-olds. That compares with a roughly even split of favourable to unfavourable ratings among seniors.
The high level of satisfaction with the social network among young adults may be somewhat surprising given recent data from the Pew Research Centre Internet and American Life Project showing that enthusiasm for Facebook has waned among younger users.
While the poll didn't survey respondents from Facebook's youngest users in the 13 to 18 age group, those changes could be seen as good news for the company as it faces questions about whether it is losing its cachet with young users.
The survey was conducted May 29 to June 2 among a random national sample of 1 007 adults. - Washington Post