Google in a Word: ‘Innovative’, ‘Search’, ‘Awesome’

When asked what one word comes to mind when thinking about Google, 10% of respondents chose innovative. In a national survey by Researchscape, conducted September 8 to 30, 2012, with 1,030 U.S. adults, 82% used a positive term to describe Google, 11% a neutral term and only 6% a negative term. The only company of the 11 studied with a greater proportion of positive comments was Amazon, with 85% of terms used being positive.

Besides calling Google innovative, 37 respondents called Google awesome, 34 useful, 33 helpful, 26 amazing, 22 great and 22 powerful. Google’s omnipresence was another theme: 12 used the word everywhere, 8 everything, 6 ubiquitous, 3 omnipotent, 2 omnipresent and 2 omniscient.

You’d have to search a while to find the negatives: 6 labeled Google a monopoly, 5 intrusive, 4 invasive, 4 evil and 3 spying.

The main neutral terms used to describe Google were search, mentioned by 90 respondents and Internet, by 6.

Younger respondents rated Google even more positively than older respondents: 87% of Millennials (those born 1980 and later) used a positive word to describe Google, compared to 74% of those over 32.

Count	Term	Sentiment
103	Innovative	1
90	Search	0
37	Awesome	1
34	Useful	1
33	Helpful	1
26	Amazing	1
22	Great	1
22	Powerful	1
19	Smart	1
16	Best	1
16	Information	1
14	Fun	1
13	Leader	1
12	Everywhere	1
12	Excellent	1
12	Fast	1
11	Huge	1
10	Creative	1
10	Easy	1
10	Good	1
10	Informative	1
9	Reliable	1
8	Everything	1
8	Necessary	1
7	Cool	1
7	Cutting-edge	1
7	Giant	1
7	Intelligent	1

Out of 433 companies mentioned by respondents as the company they most admired, 25.6% of respondents chose Google, putting it third behind Amazon and Apple, each with 29%.

Google has led all the other Internet portals and search engines in customer satisfaction since 2002, according to ACSI LLC. However, its ratings plunged from 86 out of 100 in 2008 and 2009 to 80 in 2010. For 2012, the company was rated 82 out of 100, just 1 point ahead of Microsoft Bing.

	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012
Google	–	–	80	82	82	82	81	78	86	86	80	83	82
Bing (Microsoft)	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	77	82	81
All Others	67	72	72	78	78	77	78	75	76	78	82	81	80
Ask.com	–	–	62	69	71	72	71	75	74	74	73	80	80
Internet Portals & Search Engines	63	65	68	71	72	76	77	75	80	83	77	80	79
MSN (Microsoft)	71	67	72	74	75	75	74	75	75	75	75	78	78
Yahoo!	74	73	76	78	78	80	76	79	77	77	76	79	78
AOL	56	58	59	65	67	71	74	67	69	70	74	75	74

Source: ACSI LLC, sample size = 250 per company

With its acquisition of Motorola, Google is now a manufacturer of cellular handsets.

Of cellular handset makers, ACSI found that Apple did the best, with 83 out of 100, compared to 69 out of 100 for the worst performer, Research in Motion (maker of the Blackberry). Motorola scored 73 out of 100, just below the average of 74.