Following the Harris and BusinessWeek/Interbrand brand surveys, which put Coca-Cola at the top of the list, JupiterResearch asked Internet users about their favorite brands and dissected the audiences.

The brand ranking was as follows:

1. Google

2. Yahoo
3. Amazon
4. eBay
5. MySpace
6. Microsoft (including MSN)
7. AOL
8. Apple
9. Others

Segmented by age, MySpace rose in popularity to near parity with Google and Yahoo among younger adults. Interestingly, those 55 and older expressed a stronger preference for Google vs. Yahoo. Men preferred Google, while women preferred Yahoo. There were other gender differences as well. Interestingly, “Google was quite popular with Apple fans, as was Amazon, but fared its worst with users of MySpace and AOL.”

As one might expect, the strongest brand affinity and loyalty was among Apple fans. According to Jupiter, “An astonishing 51 percent described themselves as brand advocates.”

One of the reasons brand is important is because it drives usage and correlates with market share. Despite the often heard remark, “our competition is just a click away,” brand loyalty and habitual behavior makes that statement factually less true than it seems logically or in the abstract.

Related Topics: Google: Marketing | Stats: Popularity | Yahoo: Marketing

About The Author: Greg Sterling is a Contributing Editor at Search Engine Land. He writes a personal blog Screenwerk, about SoLoMo issues and connecting the dots between online and offline. He also posts at Internet2Go, which is focused on the mobile Internet. Follow him @gsterling. See more articles by Greg Sterling