Today, GE is a powerhouse of an organization—a truly Gargantuan Enterprise—with a monolithic brand that has its fingers in many pies, from finance to nuclear energy.

That misstep aside, GE's online proposition is an altogether excellent representation of the brand and is a vibrant and dynamic environment that is virtually bursting with emotion and intelligence.

Perhaps the most striking characteristic of GE on the Web is the depth of its content and material. Take its Ecomagination website, for example, which aside from evangelizing GE's environmental commitments comes complete with its own fully animated guide and is worth a visit on its own. Add to that GE's extensive corporate citizenship program, dedicated websites for all of its subsidiary businesses (each one perfectly in tune with the brand), and a library full of other information on GE's products and services, and it isn't difficult to start appreciating what the company is all about.

In terms of the notable site highlights, the Patent Pending Video Series, which contains streamed and downloadable videos that can be subscribed to via podcasts, is worth a look, as it affords users a sneak preview of the types of innovative technology that GE is currently working on. Likewise, GE's country-based sites, most of which are available in the indigenous language, are a useful read for users who reside outside of the US.

In terms of general improvements, the homepage could certainly do with a wash and brush-up, as it lacks a bit of impact when first logging on. It also was a bit of a surprise that given GE's global exposure and the associated reach of its products, it doesn't yet seem to have grasped the concept of online communities. Finally, it would also have been nice to see the web page of GE's entertainment arm, NBC Universal, given a bit more prominence, considering the audience it reaches.

All of that said, however, one could conclude that for a business that has had its fair share of ups and downs in the past, GE online is a far better web offering than those of the majority of its peers.

That assumes, of course, that GE—the second-ranked company on the Forbes Global 2000—has any peers. Indeed, it was back in the 1980s when Jack Welch, GE's then-CEO, said he wanted GE to become "the most competitive company on Earth." On the strength of this Web proposition, the brand might have succeeded in doing just that.