Survey: Google Knocks Microsoft From Top Brand Perch

Google is now the world's most valuable brand, followed closely by GE, Microsoft and Coca-Cola, according to Millward Brown Optimor's 2007 Brandz survey.

Microsoft was tops in 2006, but it fell two spots this year to No. 3. GE came in second and Coca-Cola was fourth.

According to the survey, the Microsoft brand's value has dropped 11 percent in the last year, while Google's grew 77 percent. Last year, Google ranked No. 7.

Overall, technology is ranked as the fifth most powerful brand category, with growth of 14 percent since last year.

Other technology companies ranking in the top 10 were China Mobile at No. 5 and IBM at No. 9. HP came in at No. 15, with brand value up 27 percent over the last year, the survey said. Apple came in at No. 16, with its brand value up more than 55 percent.

Cisco, Intel, SAP, Oracle and Dell all made the top 40.

This is the second year that Millward Brown Optimor, the "brand finance and ROI unit of...market research and consultancy Millward Brown," has conducted this survey. This year, at least 1 million consumers were interviewed for the survey, which covered "almost" 400,000 worldwide brands, the company said.

"The ranking is based on the brand's 'dollar value,' calculated by using an economic use approach; the brand value shown in our ranking is based on the present value of the earnings that the brand is expected to generate in the future," the company explained in a release.

Google and Apple topped the survey's list of brands with the highest momentum. The survey also breaks the brands' value by region and industry.