Tech's most interesting companies

Founded back in 1995, despite being a teenager, eBay is more of a pleasure than a pain to be around. Countless people have made money out of things they no longer want and also managed to buy things they thought they'd missed out on.

In fact, it's often quite amazing what some people will bid on and how much they're prepared to pay. Although that said, I'm sure many of us have been carried away by the adrenalin of bidding against someone with a silly user name - for something that will only gather dust - with just seconds to spare before the end of the auction.

The concept was and still is highly innovative and the technology behind it has stood the test of time. While many imitations have followed, none have ever matched up to my first e-auction love eBay. (Maggie Holland, IT PRO)

GoodOldGames

GoodOldGames.com isn't the most startlingly innovative company around; all they really do is sell games. What makes them stand out though is which games they sell and how they support them.

While other publishers spend millions chasing the latest trends, GOG distributes classic titles like Fallout and Freespace, picking rights up cheaply on account of the age.

What's refreshing about GOG is that savings are then passed to customers as all games fall into two price brackets; cheap or very cheap. GOG then attracts more customers with the promise of guaranteed compatibility and a total lack of DRM making it a publisher that many larger companies could learn a thing or two from if you ask us. (Joe Martin, Bit-Tech.net)

Google

The answer to any unanswered question has become "Google it!" It has become our superhero, our font of knowledge, saving many a debate from running into the early hours of the morning.

It may be a decade old and as mainstream as it gets, but it's still the most exciting tech company today. Since its emergence in the late nineties it has released, developed and acquired a range of exciting tools that have become part of our everyday life.

Now don't get me wrong, Google has made its mistakes. Its recent controversy over Street View and continuing Gmail failures leave a bit of a nasty aftertaste and may make it the company everybody loves to hate, but I'm backing it 100 per cent at the moment.

The user accessibility that allows both the technically minded and the layman feel at home is part of its endearing quality and its recent reach into the phone market has just proved yet another success. (Jennifer Scott, IT PRO)

Mozilla

The most interesting tech company in the world today is Mozilla, and it's all because of Firefox. Since its release, the Firefox browser has been downloaded over 700 million times as of March, while Microsoft's Internet Explorer has seen a steady decline in use. Firefox's market share has grown during each growth period since its beginning, which comes mostly at the expense of Internet Explorer's own market share.

Firefox is the preferred browser of many, for its automatic pop-up blocking, easy tab browsing, the integrated Google search engine, a faster browsing experience, and an overall cleaner interface.

That increasing market share and Firefox's better features have forced Internet Explorer to up it's own game so even if you don't use Firefox, you've probably benefited from the work of Mozilla's open source developers. (Abby Michaud, IT PRO)