America's 20 most reputable companies

Of the 20 notable changes in reputation among the 54 companies measured in both 2010 and 2011, 18 had significant positive increases, according to the 2011 Harris Interactive RQ study.

Sixteen companies received an RQ score over 80. Technology companies were the toppers in the list.

AIG had the 'worst reputation' with a score of 47.77. BP, the company had the second-worst ranking.

Other companies that rank low in reputation are Comcast, Delta Airlines, JPMorgan Chase, ExxonMobile, General Motors, Bank of America, Chrysler, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs.

1. Google
Reputation scale: 84.05

Google was ranked the most reputable company in the United States by the Harris Interactive RQ study.

Google runs over one million servers in data centres around the world and processes over one billion search requests everyday.

The company was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin on September 4, 1998.

(A reputation scale of 80.0 and higher is considered excellent.)

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A Fortune 500 company, Johnson & Johnson is a global pharmaceutical, medical devices and consumer packaged goods manufacturer founded in 1886 by Robert Wood Johnson, an American entrepreneur and industrialist.

The company has also been ranked as the world's most respected company by Barron's magazine.

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3M is one of 30 companies in the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

3M is a science-based company, manufacturing 55,000 products across healthcare, highway safety, office and abrasives and adhesives sectors.

The company was founded in 1902 by Henry S Bryan, Hermon W Cable, John Dwan, William A McGonagle and J Danley Budd.

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Founded by Warren Buffett, Berkshire owns a diverse range of businesses including railroads, confectionery, retail, home furnishings, encyclopedias, manufacture of vacuum cleaners, jewellery, newspaper publishing, manufacture and distribution of uniforms, as well as several regional electric and gas utilities.

The company was set up in 1955 by the merger of Hathaway Manufacturing Company with Berkshire Fine Spinning Associates.

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A multinational corporation, Apple Inc designs and markets consumer electronics, computer software, and personal computers.

Apple Inc is also the most valuable technology company in the world.

Fortune magazine named Apple as the most admired company in the world in 2008, 2009 and 2010.

Apple was established on April 1, 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne.

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Intel Corporation is world's largest semiconductor chip maker in terms of revenue.

It is the inventor of the x86 series of microprocessors, the processors found in most personal computers.

The company was set up in 1968 as NM Electronics by Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore, inventors of the integrated circuit to manufacture large-scale integrated (LSI) circuits.

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Kraft Foods Inc is one of the largest confectionery, food, and beverage companies in the US.

It markets brands in more than 155 countries. Forty of its brands are at least 100 years old.

The company was founded in 1903 by James L Kraft.

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A multinational e-commerce company, it is the largest online retailer in the United States.

Jeff Bezos founded Amazon.com in 1994.

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General Mills is an American Fortune 500 corporation, which deals with food products.

Its portfolio includes more than 100 leading brands.

The company traces its origin to the Minneapolis Milling Company, founded in 1856 by Robert Smith.

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The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue.

Founded on October 16, 1923, by brothers Walt Disney and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, the company was reincorporated as Walt Disney Productions, in 1929, and became publicly-traded as Walt Disney Productions in 1938.

The company is best known for its film studio, the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, one of the largest in Hollywood.

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A Fortune 500 American multinational corporation headquartered in Downtown Cincinnati, Procter & Gamble manufactures a wide range of consumer goods.

It was ranked 5th in Fortune's Most Admired Companies 2011 list.

William Procter, a candlemaker, and James Gamble, a soapmaker, formed the company initially. Procter & Gamble was born on 31 October 1837.

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Started in 1886 as a parquet flooring company, SC Johnson is one of the world's leading makers of household products.

Fortune magazine listed it among the '100 Best Companies to Work For in America'. It has operations in 72 countries.

The company started operations when Samuel Curtis Johnson, Sr purchased the parquet flooring business of Racine Hardware Company in 1886 and renamed it Johnson's Prepared Paste Wax Company.

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United Parcel Service, Inc -- referred to as UPS -- is a package delivery company.

Headquartered in Sandy Springs, Georgia, United States, UPS delivers more than 15 million packages a day to 6.1 million customers in more than 220 countries and territories around the world.

The company was initially named American Messenger Company.

It was set up in August 1907, by 19-year-old Jim Casey and 18-year-old Claude Ryan in Seattle, Washington.

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Sony Corporation is a leading manufacturer of audio, video, game, communications, key device and information technology products for the consumer and professional markets.

Sony recorded consolidated annual sales of about $78 billion for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2010.

The company was founded on May 7 1946 by Masaru Ibuka.

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A beverage retailer, manufacturer and marketer of non-alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups, Coca-Cola is known for its flagship product Coca-Cola, invented by pharmacist John Stith Pemberton in 1886.

The Coca-Cola formula and brand was bought in 1889 by Asa Candler who incorporated The Coca-Cola Company in 1892.

Coca-Cola currently offers more than 500 brands in over 200 countries.

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Software giant Microsoft Corporation develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions.

The company was established on April 4, 1975 by Paul Allen and Bill Gates, who were childhood friends.

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Whole Foods Market is the world's largest retailer of natural and organic foods, with stores throughout North America and the United Kingdom.

The company is consistently ranked among the most socially responsible businesses and placed third on the US Environmental Protection Agency's list of Top 25 Green Power Partners.

The company was founded by John Mackey.

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Honda Motor Company is the sixth largest automobile manufacturer in the world. It has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959.

Soichiro Honda and Takeo Fujisawa established the company on September 24, 1948.

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PepsiCo offers a large portfolio of food and beverage brands, including 19 different product lines.

A Fortune 500 company, PepsiCo was formed in 1965 with the merger of the Pepsi-Cola Company and Frito-Lay, Inc.

PepsiCo acquired Tropicana in 1998 and added Quaker Oats to its portfolio in 2001.

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Costco is one of the largest retailers in the United States. Costco currently operates 581 warehouses, including 424 in the United States.

The company was set up in 1983 by James D Sinega and Jeffrey H. Brotman.