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The Professional PHP blog has created a few graphs with the help of the Google Trends site comparing the usage of four different languages - PHP, Java, C#, and Perl - represented by a handfull of graphs.
There is a new google toy as of today: Google Trends. So of course, I wanted to see how PHP is faring on the trendy landscape. PHP seems to be holding steady, or slightly declining. But, Java is waning, as I discussed in Why isn't PHP the natural successor to Java?. C# seems to be steady and slightly increasing, while Perl is steady and slightly decreasing. So where are those Java programmers going if not PHP? Are they going to Ruby and Ruby on Rails?
The graphs show that, besides Java's stats slowly dropping and PHP holding steady, Ruby still just doesn't compare to the two, and Ruby on Rails even less. What's interesting is the move from more Struts-style frameworks to more of a "Ruby clone" setup, with the gap only widening as things go along. Also, on a slightly related note, the results for Ajax versus Javascript are showing an ever-widening gap - in favor of Ajax.