Google and Python usage

[Terry Reedy]

"Peter Hansen" <peter at engcorp.com> wrote in message
news:t62dndgNZ6u3bT_dRVn-hA at powergate.ca...
> David M. Cooke wrote:
>
> > Everybody says Google uses Python, but I've never seen it... until I
> > came across this, for the Google AdWords support page:
> >
> > https://adwords.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?topic=102
> >
> > Is that a .py I spy?
>
> I guess so, but in any case the usual use of Python attributed
> to Google is not something you *would* see, as it's always been
> said to be on the back end, collecting and indexing the sites
> in the first place, not on the front end.  Nice to see their
> use of it is growing even beyond that...

I think it reasonable to suppose that they also use Python to prototype and
test new features and algorithms that later get either discarded or recoded
in C or whatever for speed.  They rerun at least some programs enough times
that recoding can pay off in reduced hardware costs.  But their continued
success depends on staying nimbly ahead of the competition.

Terry J. Reedy