Responding to the ENT survey of Web servers that was quoted recently in WinInfo, an Apache Web magazine decided to do a survey of its own to prove that the Apache Web server is indeed dominant on the Web. But while Apache does have the lead position among the top Web sites that it investigated, the results were clearly not what Apache Today had hoped. In a survey of the 30 most popular Web sites, Apache Today discovered that Apache is used on 33 percent of those sites, far below the 50-60 percent cited by the Netcraft survey that started this whole debate. Netscape/iPlanet was second with 24%, while Microsoft IIS came in third with 21 percent.
"Obviously, this isn't a slam dunk for Apache," said Apache Today's Kevin Reichard. "Nor was anyone at Apache Today expecting it to be. But the trends exhibited by the top 30 Web sites in terms of popularity should end any talk about the momentum of IIS in the marketplace, and it should also point out the amazing popularity of Netscape servers." A less biased reading of the results, however, coupled with the recent Windows 2000 adoption at Lycos (number four on the list of most popular sites), suggests that Microsoft's Web server, IIS, is doing just fine, actually. In fact, Microsoft IIS is now used on two of the top four sites. And popular Web destinations such as eBay, Go, AltaVista, and InfoSpace are all built on a Microsoft Web platform.
Apache Today used the Media Matrix Top 50 list to gather their results. Why they didn't poll the entire top 50 is, of course, open to debate. In cases where multiple sites are maintained by the same company, Apache Today noted those as well. So, for example, One of Microsoft's URLs, for HotMail, is listed as being in the Apache and FreeBSD camp. For the complete story, please visit the Apache Today Web site
