

Ask HN: Why is PHP losing so much ground? - arturadib

Take a look at this steady decline:<p>http://www.google.com/trends?q=php&#38;ctab=0&#38;geo=all&#38;date=all&#38;sort=0<p>What is PHP being replaced by? Is it primarily one language, or many?
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spokey
I'm not sure that Google trends graph is telling us that PHP is losing ground.
I mean, it's a measure of the number of times someone searches for "PHP"
relative to all other search terms, right? You'd get the same shape if the raw
number of searches on "PHP" have remained more or less constant while the
number of non-PHP searches have gone up, for instance, because the ratio of
techies to non-techies on the internet has declined.

For example, if you factor out the seasonal fluctuations, calculus and physics
have also "lost ground":

[http://www.google.com/trends?q=calculus&ctab=0&geo=a...](http://www.google.com/trends?q=calculus&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all)

[http://www.google.com/trends?q=physics&ctab=0&geo=al...](http://www.google.com/trends?q=physics&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all)

In fact, Linux and Unix have lost significant ground by this metric as well:

[http://www.google.com/trends?q=linux&ctab=0&geo=all&...](http://www.google.com/trends?q=linux&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all)

[http://www.google.com/trends?q=unix&ctab=0&geo=all&#...</a><p>The langpop
data doesn't go back as far, but suggests that PHP is more popular than 2-3
years ago: <a href="http://langpop.com/timeline.html"
rel="nofollow">http://langpop.com/timeline.html</a><p>I don't know if PHP is
more or less popular than it was 6 years ago, but I suspect Google trends
doesn't either.

~~~
dget
Going off of this, it could also be the case that other languages are going
up, while PHP stays steady (or grows at a lesser pace).

~~~
spokey
Maybe. I'm having trouble finding a programming language with a moderately
long history (say, over 2 years) that isn't trending down on Google trends.

Ruby comes close to holding steady:
[http://www.google.com/trends?q=ruby&ctab=0&geo=all&#...](http://www.google.com/trends?q=ruby&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0)

So does Python:
[http://www.google.com/trends?q=python&ctab=0&geo=all...](http://www.google.com/trends?q=python&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0)

but virtually everything else I've tried is trending down. (Well, Clojure is
growing, but only shows about 12 months of measurable data. It's hard not to
grow when you start at 0, as Clojure did when it launched in 2007)

I agree though that "flat is the new up" on this graph since the number of
people searching for programming topics isn't growing as fast as the number of
people using Google.

It's the Linux search that makes me think Google trends isn't a reliable
metric for the popularity of a technology topic. Surely Linux isn't losing
mind share as quickly as that graph is declining.

------
mg1313
I don't think it loses too much ground...it's here to stay, at least for
another decade.

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getonit
It doesn't seem to be any one language:

[http://www.google.com/trends?q=php,+ruby,+asp,+python,+perl&...](http://www.google.com/trends?q=php,+ruby,+asp,+python,+perl&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0)

~~~
pedalpete
Is this a better representation?
[http://www.google.com/trends?q=php+programming,+ruby+program...](http://www.google.com/trends?q=php+programming,+ruby+programming,+asp+programming,+python+programming,+perl+programming&ctab=0&geo=all&date=ytd&sort=0)

------
KERMIT
Mainly by Haskell, Clojure and Erlang.

