As if fanboys of Apple and Google weren't shrill and relentless enough! The American Customer Satistfaction Index has ranked Apple tops in personal computers and Google tops in Internet portals and search engines. Yahoo's score in the latter category slipped, proving that any publicity may not, in fact, be good publicity. Both companies improved their scores significantly over the previous year, and both are running well ahead of the competition. Of course, thanks to Google it took mere milliseconds to find that orgasmic Apple MacBook Pro unboxing that I promise will make you throw up a little in your mouth.

Competitors' efforts have failed to dent Google's search market share. A survey of customer satisfaction paints a different picture — which just goes to show you that it's not, as Google likes to claim, all about the users. The newly released American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) from the University of Michigan has Yahoo regaining its lead over Google with an increase of 3.9 points, while Google fell 3.7 points. ACSI attributes the improvements to Yahoo's ratings to well-received design and feature enhancements. Ask.com experienced the biggest improvement, jumping 5.6 points, leaving it tied with Microsoft's MSN.