Google thinks Open Source is winning
Today's top Google results for a variety of software keywords:
- sql : mysql.com
- web server : apache.org (Apache.org also is the top result for 'server')
- scripting : php.net
- operating system : linux.org
- word processing : abisource.com (AbiWord) (also first product page for "word processor")
- spreadsheet : gnome.org/projects/gnumeric (OK, the first hit is actually Excel related, but it's not an official product page. This one is and it's the second result.)
- programming : java.sun.com (Granted, not open source, but not Microsoft Visual whatever)
- compiler : gcc.gnu.org
- browser : opera.com (Mozilla.org is the second result, IE is the third)
- content management : microsoft.com/cmserver/ (Surprise! Vignette is 2nd, Interwoven 3rd)
So what is that... 7 out of 10 are open source? Not bad. Content management is obviously an area that needs more open source effort.
Oh, and GNU.org is the 2nd result for 'software' (tucows is the 1st but too general to count).
No, this isn't terribly scientific. It either shows that there are more people writing and linking to open source projects/sites or the commercial software companies are doing a terrible job improving their Google page rank.
What came as a shock to me is that if you screw up the "I'm Feeling Lucky" quick-search feature in Mozilla Firebird (and others) and try to do an "I'm Feeling Lucky" search on nothing (actually, the search string "%s") it takes you to GNU.org.
I say Mozilla Firebird because they have a quicksearch folder that is used for bookmarklets and if you click on "I'm Feeling Lucky Quicksearch", you go to GNU.org. It took me a while to figure out why it was doing that, so here's the regular google search.