America's Most Admired Companies 2008

Top 20 Most Admired Companies

To create the top 20, Fortune and its survey partners at Hay Group asked the experts -- in this case, more than 3,700 people from dozens of industries -- to select the 10 companies they admire most. This year's winners all have strong records of innovation, leadership, and financial strength -- and their employees know it.

4 of 20

Google

Top 20 rank: 4
Rank in Internet Services and Retailing: 2

Microsoft may be bigger, but everything in the tech world revolves around Google. Its "Do no evil" motto has become a kind of Hippocratic oath for other Silicon Valley firms, and even its fiercest critics agree that Google sees itself as the caretaker for the web. Competitors talk of meetings where Googlers, as altruistic as Santa's elves, ask, "What's good for the web?" Of course, what's good for the web has also proven to be very good for Google. -Josh Quittner

See how Google rates in 8 key areas

Have your say: Do you admire the top 20 companies?

Last updated March 03 2008: 2:10 PM ET