Google off List of 20 Most Trusted Companies - December 16, 2008 By Deborah Gage San Francisco Chronicle December 15, 2008 "Facebook, Apple, Yahoo, Verizon and FedEx for the first time have made an annual ranking of the top 20 most trusted companies in the United States. ... Google, however, dropped off the list, released today by the Ponemon Institute and TRUSTe in San Francisco[.] [ ... ] "Dr. Larry Ponemon, who conducted the survey, said ... some companies, like IBM, might be trusted because they have big brands; others, like Apple, because consumers like their products. "He speculated that people felt sorry for Yahoo because of its difficulties with Microsoft and Google, neither of which made the list. "'Google (and Microsoft) suffer from big company syndrome,' Ponemon said. 'People figure that if you're big and collecting data, there must be an issue.'" To read the full article, click on the Title Line, above. See Also: Ponemon Institute and TRUSTe Announce Results of Annual Most Trusted Companies for Privacy Survey American Express, eBay, IBM Are Top Three; Facebook Breaks Into Top 20 Press Release Ponemon Institute (Posted to MarketWatch) December 15, 2008