Google has become the world’s second-most valuable brand, just behind Wal-Mart, having ousted Coca-Cola from the No. 2 spot, according to analysts Brand Finance. Google jumped from No. 5 last year to No. 2 in this year's Brand Finance evaluation.

Coca-Cola lost to Google, falling to the No. 3 spot, in part because the soft drink is not as powerful in developing countries as it used to be, writes Metro. "Coke is on a long term decline unless it can reinvent itself," David Haigh, chief executive of Brand Finance, says.

Wal-Mart has a brand value of $41.4 billion, followed by Google with $36.2 billion and Coca-Cola with $34.8 billion, writes MediaBuyerPlanner.

Vodafone Becomes Most Valuable Brand in Britain

Vodafone Becomes Most Valuable Brand in Britain IBM and Microsoft round out the top five (with brand values of $33.7 billion and $33.6 billion, respectively), while the top 10 includes GE, Vodafone, HSBC, HP and Toyota (in that order). Vodafone and HSBC switched places this year for the seventh and eighth slot, with Vodafone beating out HSBC for the title of most valuable brand in Britain.

Toyota to Suffer Next Year

Toyota is likely to be in trouble in terms of brand value because of its recall situation, Haigh says. While the recall came too late to affect this year’s list, it is likely to be "devastating" for the brand next year. "Toyota was much too slow off the mark to face the problem and the price of that is a destruction of brand value."

Toyota has been criticized for not handling the recall quickly enough, and its social efforts to manage the crisis have been described as mediocre at best.