Google overtakes Microsoft to be 2nd biggest firm

Google has soared past Microsoft in terms of market value to become the second-richest firm in the tech world behind Apple. Google shares gained 0.96 per cent to end at $761.78, giving the Internet giant a market capitalisation of $249.1 billion. Microsoft meanwhile fell 0.91 per cent to $29.49, translating into a market worth of $247.2 billion. Both remained well behind Apple, which shed 1.16 per cent to $659.39, meaning its market cap is just above $618 billion. Google's stock price has climbed steadily this year as the California-based company bolstered its positions in key Internet growth areas with its dominant search engine, Android mobile operating system and YouTube video venue. The shares got a boost last week from a Citigroup note advising investors that the Google stock price could 'rise significantly in the 12 months ahead'. A note on Monday from Trip Chowdhry at Global Equities Research said both Google and Apple have 'strong momentum' in the mobile Internet sector while 'developer interest in Windows Phone is almost non-existent'. Chowdhry added that Google's 'innovation velocity far exceeds any other company'. Enthusiasm for Microsoft has been lukewarm, despite its upcoming launch of the Windows 8 operating system and a push into the tablet and phone markets. Google's investment The milestone follows Google's rise from a search-engine invented by two Stanford University students into an advertising powerhouse that makes the world's most used mobile operating system and tool for digging up information on the Web. It also reflects the ascension of the Internet as the delivery channel for more of the software and computing tasks that were once left to the Microsoft-dominated PC industry. "The PC hardware business is obviously struggling,- said Martin Pyykkonen, a Greenwood Village, Colorado-based analyst at Wedge Partners Corp. "The transition here is pretty straightforward in terms of where things have moved to and certainly that's cloud, that's Web.- Only Apple, the world's most valuable company at $618.1 billion, tops Google among technology businesses. Apple passed Microsoft in 2010 on rising sales of iPhones and iPads -” devices that helped usher in a new era of computing that's less reliant on PCs. Market leader Google controls 66 per cent of the United States search market, while Microsoft is a distant second at 16 per cent, according to ComScore. This year, Google is on track to displace Facebook in the US as the biggest outlet for display advertising, including banner ads, according to EMarketer. Google will also remain No. 1 for mobile ads in the US, EMarketer projects.At the same time, Google's Android software powered 64 per cent of smartphones in the second quarter, up from 43 per cent in the same period a year earlier, according to Stamford, Connecticut-based researcher Gartner. Apple's software was a distant second at 19 per cent and Microsoft had just 2.7 per cent. While Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft operates an online business including the Bing search engine, it still gets most of its revenue from the Windows and Office software used primarily on PCs. Windows sales have slumped as some consumers opt for tablets instead of cheaper laptops running Microsoft's software. The next version of Windows, due October 26, is designed for touch- screen technology in tablets and will power handheld devices including Surface, Microsoft's first foray into hardware. Google has introduced its own tablet, Nexus 7. Microsoft hit a market capitalization of more than $430 billion in July 2000, according to data. Microsoft fell to about $135 billion in March 2009 during the economic crisis, before recovering with the market. Times of Oman