[pspencer]

This one page isn't a good indicator of a language's popularity. It probably includes results referencing Monty Python, as indicated by the news article headlines, or the animal python.

The TIOBE index might be a better indicator of programming popularity using internet search results:

http://www.tiobe.com/index.php/content/paperinfo/tpci/index....

but that's still not perfect. You could also look at the number of job postings on sites like Indeed asking for Perl experience.

[blowski]

Looking at HTML, CSS, Ruby, Python, PHP, JavaScript, Perl... they're all losing popularity. http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=php%2C%20ruby%2C%20cs...

Looks like this internet thing was just a passing fad after all.

EDIT: Even more interestingly, there is an inverse relationship between searches for PHP and pizza. What does this mean? http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=php%2C%20pizza&cmpt=q...

[VLM]

Look at the queries... they're all noob oriented.

How to use a for loop, hash, or array?

I'm not saying that the supply of noobs drying up is a good thing, but...

[Mithaldu]

TIOBE is almost more flawed, since it pretends to be scientific while only querying a bunch of search engines (google, SO, wikipedia) for "<language> programming", which is skewed towards languages that tend to be mentioned with the word, such as http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C_(programming_language) , as opposed to languages that have a unique enough name, such as http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PHP

[sbrother]

I just looked at that, and apparently F# is more popular than Ruby! As much as I wish that were the case, it's pretty suspect...

[giancarlostoro]

Unless I'm wrong: The popularity doesn't mean anything necessarily good. More people are probably asking for help in F# than they are in Ruby (much simpler to comprehend). The results aren't really helpful they just give you back indiscriminating numbers.

[vorg]

Tiobe is gamed bigtime by promoters of some of the smaller languages in the 21 to 50 range, and postings for IT jobs that don't exist is a con that's been going on for decades.

[placeybordeaux]

You can filter a lot of that out.

http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=perl%2C%20python%20-m...

Looks like the interest in monty python and snake pythons is pretty constant.