In the beginning of the 1990s, the most famous global brands were the companies that were in the business of producing materials goods or processing physical matter. Today, however, the lists of best-recognized global brands are topped with the names such as Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft. (In fact, Google was number one in the world in 2007 in terms of brand recognition.) And, at least in the U.S., the most widely read newspapers and magazines - New York Times, USA Today, Business Week, etc. - daily feature news and stories about YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, Apple, Google, and other IT companies.

What about other media? If you access CNN web site and navigate to the business section, you will see a market data for just ten companies and indexes displayed right on the home page.1 Although the list changes daily, it is always likely to include some of the same IT brands. Lets take January 21, 2008 as an example. On that day CNN list consisted from the following companies and indexes: Google, Apple, S&P 500 Index, Nasdaq Composite Index, Dow Jones Industrial Average, Cisco Systems, General Electric, General Motors, Ford, Intel.2