The annual top 40 companies list from Wired magazine is out, and this year Google moved up from the number two slot to first place, bumping Apple down a notch. Last year, the positions were reversed: Apple was first and Google was second.

Wired had this to say about its new first-place company:

Less cuddly but more profitable than ever, the monster from Mountain View has rivals but no peers. Is it a search engine? A media company? A software provider? Who cares? Microsoft, for one. Get ready for the grudge match of the decade.

The magazine has this to say about Apple:

In the drama of Apple’s resurgence, act one was forging the iTunes/iPod axis. Act two was bundling the iLife suite of creative tools with new computers. Adapting the Mac OS to run Windows apps natively would make a triumphant conclusion.

Wired bases its list ranking on strategic vision, global reach, killer technology, and "the X-factor." The X-factor is "a hunger for new ideas and an impatience to put them into practice."

Other familiar companies on the list include Yahoo! if fifth place, the same slot it held last year, and Microsoft, which dropped from 28 to 36.

According to vnunet.com, Dell was dropped from the list this year because of its consistent cost reductions which have left it with nothing else to trim.