The new economy versus the old. Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM), which has its roots in John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil from well over a century ago, has had its market cap eclipsed by Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL), which was founded in 1998. Old world energy has fallen to new world tech.

Google’s market cap is $381 billion, second only to Apple Inc.’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) $733 billion. Exxon’s is at $354 billion, barely ahead of Microsoft Corp.’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) at $351 billion.

The difference in size between Exxon and Google is huge. According to the Fortune 500, Exxon had $407 billion in revenue and $32.5 billion in profit for 2013. Both numbers fell from the previous year. Its revenue size placed it second among all companies, only shy of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NASDAQ: WMT).

Google ranked 46% in the 2014 Fortune 500. It had revenue of $60 billion, with net income of $13 billion. Each number grew at close to 20% over the previous year.

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Exxon has barely diversified beyond the oil industry — exploring, transportation and refining. The dominance of crude as a source of energy will persist for decades. However, Exxon competes with other giants, which probably caps its chance to take significant market share. And the falling price of crude, on balance, will hurt its sales.

Google not only dominates one of the most important areas of the tech sector — search — its innovation includes the creation of the most widely used smartphone operating system in the world — Android. Google also owns YouTube, the world’s largest video site. However, Google has not figured out a way to make YouTube a large part of its revenue stream. Google is also a major force in e-mail, mapping and the browser segment. Its presence in some of these areas is so large that it has become a target of antitrust efforts, not unlike Microsoft was a generation ago.

Many analysts would argue the reason Google’s market cap is so large is that it has the opportunity to grow by 20% for several more years. That is not the whole of it. Google sits at among the most important crossroads in the technology industry. Its dominance in those places brings it pricing power and a foundation from which to innovate and expand further into the tech sector.

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