Google has emerged as the world's most attractive employer

Google has emerged as the world's most attractive employer, but four global auditing giants are posing a challenge to the technology giant, says a survey by employer branding company Universum.

According to Universum's -- The world's most attractive employers 2010 -- index, Google retains its number one position for the second consecutive year.

"We are witnessing the auditing firms and FMCG companies reconquering their talent group after a brief love affair with the IT industry," Universum chief executive officer Michal Kalinowski said.

The survey took into consideration responses of close to 130,000 career seekers with a business or engineering background. Here is a look at the world's 20 most attractive employers. Read on . . .

1. Google

In the summer of 1995, Larry Page and Sergey Brin met for the first time at Stanford. Larry, 22, a University of Michigan graduate, was considering the school, and Sergey, 21, was assigned to show him around.

According to some accounts, they disagreed on almost everything during this first meeting.

In 1996, Page and Brin, now Stanford computer science grad students, began collaborating on a search engine called BackRub. It operated on Stanford servers for more than a year -- eventually taking up too much bandwidth to suit the university.

Next year, Page and Brin decided that the BackRub search engine needed a new name. After some brainstorming, they went with Google -- a play on the word 'googol,' a mathematical term for the number represented by the numeral 1 followed by 100 zeros. The use of the term reflected their mission to organise a seemingly infinite amount of information on the web.

In August 1998, Sun co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim wrote a check for $100,000 to an entity that dd not exist: a company called Google Inc.

In September, Google set up workspace in a garage at 232 Santa Margarita, Menlo Park.

Google files for incorporation in California on September 4. Shortly thereafter, Page and Brin open a bank account in the newly-established company's name and deposited Andy Bechtolsheim's check.

Craig Silverstein a Stanford graduate was Google's first employee.

In December, PC Magazine recognised Google as the search engine of choice in the Top 100 Web Sites for 1998.

Google is now headquartered at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, California.