Sergey Brin and Larry Page, both 32, were given the accolade for the effect the company they founded seven years ago has had in the last year on Internet users and the worlds of business and technology, the FT said.

It also noted Google's rising stock market value of nearly 130 billion dollars (109.5 billion euros, 74.8 billion pounds), which has put it virtually level-pegging with technology giants IBM and just behind Microsoft and Intel.

Fresh from an investment in AOL Wednesday, Brin and Page -- who began as postgraduate students at US university Stanford -- admitted there was still scope to improve Google's core product.