The World’s Most Innovative Companies 2010

Even in these tough times, surprising and extraordinary efforts are under way in businesses across the globe. From politics to technology, energy, and transportation; from marketing to retail, health care, and design, each company on the following pages illustrates the power and potential of innovative ideas and creative execution.

With 400 million users worldwide, Facebook move from last year’s number 15 up to take the number one spot. The social networking site contains 2 billion photos, 14 million videos, and has enabled users to drag their identities and networks with them to 15,000 Web sites a month through Facebook Connect. As a result, Facebook has become the platform of choice for major brands, political candidates and social causes.  In September, Facebook became cash-flow positive for the first time.

At number 2 Google, the Internet's most popular search engine.  After releasing the Nexus One (Google Phone) and snaring mobile-ad firm AdMob, Google announced that it had doubled its mobile audience in 2009, to 25 million searchers; in total, it commands 86% of the mobile-search market. Meanwhile, YouTube began streaming authorized TV clips, shows, and movies from ABC, BBC, MGM, and others, and splitting ad dollars with their owners. Then, there was Google Wave, a marriage of social networking, writing, and photo sharing designed to replace email.

New in at No. 50 is Twitter.  Year-over-year traffic has grown more than 400%; with virtually every major company opening an account; valuation is roughly $1 billion. Yet it remains to be seen whether Twitter can win back the buzz and the traffic from popular third-party apps, such as TweetDeck and Echofon. In October, Twitter got $25 million for inking deals with Microsoft (Bing) and Google to add live tweets to search results-enough, reportedly, to make the company profitable.

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Photo from Creative Commons: Flickr: Gasboyben