What Language Does Google Facebook Twitter Paypal Wikipedia etc Use?

By Xah Lee. Date: . Last updated: .

What programing language does top websites use?

Here is the list of top websites by traffic, and the language they use.

Website by trafficLanguage
1 GoogleJava, C/C++, Python.
2 FacebookPHP (HipHop), C++. Chat is erlang. HBase.
3 YouTubeC/C++, Python
4 Yahoo!PHP
5 blogger.comJava
6 baidu.com (search)C/C++. perl/python/ruby
7 WikipediaPHP (MySQL) MediaWiki
8 Windows Live live.com?
9 TwitterRuby → Java → Scala. Twitter#Technology
10 QQ.com?
11 MSN.comasp.net ?
13 LinkedInPHP?
15 TaoBao.com (shopping)PHP, Java
16 sina.com.cn?
17 Amazon.comPerl?
18 WordPress.comPHP
22 eBay.com?
23 yandex.ru (search)perl?
24 Bing?
27 Microsoft.com?
28 网易 163.com?
29 PayPal.comJava → JavaScript [Node.js at PayPal By Jeff Harrell. At https://www.paypal-engineering.com/2013/11/22/node-js-at-paypal/ , accessed on 2014-01-03 ]
31 新浪微博 weibo.com?
32 Flickr.comPHP?
34 mail.ru?
35 Craiglist.orgperl
36 FC2.com?
38 Apple.comObjective C?
39 imdb.com?
41 VKontakte.ru?
43 搜狐网 sohu.com?
44 Ask.com?
45 BBC.co.uk?
46 tumblr.comPHP
47 LiveJasmin.com (porn)?
48 xvideos.com (porn)?
56 土豆网 Todou.com?
81 YouPorn.comPHP, Redis. [How YouPorn Uses Redis: SFW Edition By Eric Pickup. At http://blog.togo.io/redisphere/how-youporn-uses-redis-sfw-edition/ , accessed on 2014-01-03 ]
103 Google orkut.comASP

The numbers are the site's traffic rankings, from http://www.alexa.com/topsites, as of . (missing ones are mostly duplicates, such as Google Japan, Google India, etc.)

Note: almost all big website also heavily use JavaScript. Unless used in special way, such as Node.js, it won't be listed.

Other Popular Websites

WebsiteLanguage
StumbleUpon.comPHP, Perl, C++
MySpace.comWas ColdFusion, post 2006 ASP. http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2006/03/25/441074.aspx
Reddit.comPython (was Common Lisp)
LiveJournal.comPerl
StackOverflowC# on ASP.NET [What Was Stack Overflow Built With? By Jeff Atwood. At http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2008/09/what-was-stack-overflow-built-with/ , accessed on 2014-01-03 ]

Those with perl are probably going back to the first dot com era (aka Web 1.0, ~1998). At that time, perl was basically the only game in town (secondarily: Java). (i don't recall what amazon and ebay were in… was it perl or php? how about imdb.com?)

most php follows starting in early 2000s, that's when PHP quietly surpassed perl in all battle fronts.

it'd be interesting to know what some of the chinese sites uses, and porn sites, as video porn sites has traffic that's probably a magnitude more than others.

as for Microsoft sites… i suppose they are ASP for older sites and C# with “.NET” for new?

Fill in the blanks please.

thanks to [2012-11-03 roowe ] ( http://www.weibo.com/scnuroowe ), [2012-11-03 krfantasy ] ( http://www.weibo.com/u/1600819134 ), [ KaeruCT ] https://twitter.com/KaeruCT.