It seemed about time to do a quick update.
Here are the current standings in my super non-scientific Google popularity contest:
PHP: 7.5 billion results (154% increase)
ASP.NET: 158 million results (84% increase)
Ruby: 81.6 million results (19% decrease)
Python: 47.6 million results (not measured last time)
As for frameworks:
Symfony: 12.9 million results (180% increase)
CakePHP: 8.8 million results (83% increase)
Ruby on Rails: 7.8 million results (44% increase)
I'd like to add a few more numbers, however. The trend is moving towards browser-based programming using Javascript, so have a look at these interesting searches:
Javascript: 561 million results
YUI: 18.4 million results
jQuery: 16.8 million results
HTML5: 9.1 million results
So based on these numbers, one might conclude:
- PHP and ASP.NET are going strong
- Ruby may have lost its luster, and Python is still a bit obscure
- Client-side (browser-based/AJAX) scripting is on the rise
Of course, there are all sorts of potential problems with these numbers, but I think they actually provide a decent overview of the current state of web-based programming.