Online search engine giant Google has emerged as the top brand that has generated strong positive buzz in 2018 in the country, followed by the rival

Facebook-owned WhatsApp and the Google-owned YouTube, according to a report.

"Google, with a buzz score of 57.2 tops the charts, followed by Whatsapp and YouTube, with 55.7 and 52.9 points, respectively in the 2018," England-based online market research and data analytics firm YouGov said.

YouGov's brand index measures public perception of brands on a daily basis across a range of metrics and the annual buzz rankings are compiled using buzz scores from the data for the full year, it said in a statement on Wednesday.

Buzz scores measure whether people have heard anything positive or negative about a brand in the previous two weeks.

"We see a surge in the popularity of digital brands and social networks. While the top three is dominated by technology giants, social networks like Facebook and Instagram park themselves at nine and ten, respectively," it said.

Ticketing portal MakeMyTrip is at the fourth place, followed by Amazon at number five. Cab hailing services like Uber and Ola which were in news for a large part of the year mostly for wrong reasons, come at seventh and eighth slots, respectively.

Food-delivery platform Swiggy, amidst talks of fresh investments and geographical expansion, has created a lot of buzz and is at the sixth spot in the top 10 list.

It also reveals the brands that have noted the greatest improvement to consumer perception in 2018.

Zomato is the most improved brand of the past year, with a buzz score of 21.3. Instagram, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Pinterest and Axis Bank are the other top improvers.

The report notes that financial brands have recorded good improvement to their buzz score in the past year. The winning brands have managed to stay relevant and have been successful in generating positive buzz amongst their

consumers," the report said.