So Google’s the biggest brand in the UK as well as the world (pdf 800+ kb). To me this signals a huge shift in advertising.
I think Umair nailed it when he wrote about interaction being so cheap that building a brand through traditional advertising is no longer necessary.
For new technology products interaction is dirt cheap, even free, for traditional products access to these products is cheaper but information about the product is so accessible that if you have a crap product people will not only know they’ll tell other people.
We – technologists, marketers etc – need to focus more on creating phenomenal experiences and less on advertising perceived benefits through ads. If you focus on building great experiences the brand and the market come cheap, just ask GOOG.