The Financial Times and Bowen Craggs & Co have tried to rank the “effectiveness” of the websites for some of the largest companies in the world. Interestingly the top four, and eight out of the top ten are European companies. I’m not sure that you can read much into the results of these surveys – although there is a clear methodology described, the results will always depend upon subjective judgement, and developing BP’s website is very different to creating one for the electronics components industry.
Berkshire Hathaway (Warren Buffet’s company) is not included in the study, as it “chooses not to use the web in a conventional way”. Their web presence is truely unconventional, and will leave you wondering how closely website design is related to the amount of money you make!