5. Sergey Brin and Larry Page
Slide: Google's social savior?Co-founders, Google
Age: Both 37
Rank change: Down
Industry: Technology
It's been a year of compromise for Google's golden boys: From the delicate deal they struck with China to remain in the market behemoth to a controversial proposal made with Verizon that would let companies pay for faster content delivery, critics are starting to question the "do no evil" thing. At the same time, its core search business is slowing, the competition is gaining (see No. 2), and the company has yet to crack the social-media nut. Brin and Page are still worth about $30 billion collectively, and revenue grew 8.5% last year, but 2010 may go down as the year Google's cracks started to show.
NEXT: 6. Aditya Mittal
Last updated October 14 2010: 1:25 PM ET
