(1) Google spent lots of developer resources on Unladen Swallow, which ended up not giving the speed increases they expected, but that's another story.
(2) Last thing I heard, Google's trying to minimize their Python usage in favor of Java.
Re #2, I heard ~November that Python was deprecated in production at Google. No idea what the details/caveats on that are (I presume it applies mainly to new code?).
This is something that I see at many places these days. Scripting has become synonymous with Perl. And for anything else People are really going in for Java.
But Django and Rails seem to be the major reasons why people continue to use Python.
Having said that no company that is making billions in profits is going to bet their very survival on a framework written and maintained by volunteers. Frameworks come and go, Every 5 years there is something new.
I have hardly seen any shop so far, at least in the most big/medium corporates who use Python or Ruby heavily in scripting. Its either bash or Perl. The problem is as I said, Neither Ruby or Python were every marketed, designed or even took off as a Scripting languages. Most start ups pick up Python/Ruby basically because they don't need a new language with their existing Django/Rails code base.
Even in such cases one you infrastructure begins to expand, one you are a reasonably sized team. Perl usage becomes inevitable.
Even among the heavy Python using companies like Google, its becoming clear why anybody would not use Python or even deprecate it in production. Because it doesn't quite really have a strong dedicated niche. Php has the web, Perl has the scripting/glue part on the Unix environment. Java has the static large app part.
Python/Ruby have great web development frameworks.But when it comes to scripting, there are no real alternatives to Perl. And besides if you wish to develop large applications, Static languages serve well. There is no point in using Python when you don't want to cook things quickly.
You will be shocked how many places apart from web communities and forums like these people haven't even heard of Ruby and Python. Most of my friends in big companies some of who also lead big teams over the years 'have just had a look at Python'.
I realize that I have posted this in a community that likes Python a lot and I'm likely to be downvoted. But I'm writing just what I've seen over time.
I never trust anyone who uses the designation "scripting language" let alone those who use it with a capital 'S '. There is absolutely no formal definition of this and it's been repeatedly picked apart such that I don't even have to do it here.
Regarding your other comments they seem to be way off base and just using your personal bubble/ "what I've seen over time". Ruby and Python have crushed Perl in modern web development (Twitter and Reddit come to mind among many others). Python has vast user communities in research and science (including computer science teaching now, MIT, Stanford). Perl might be before Ruby in the pack behind R/Matlab/Mathmatica/Python in some research settings, but that's not saying much. Python additionally is the chosen admin utility language of Red Hat and Ubuntu for their Linux distributions, so it seems there are real alternatives to Perl.
I'm not saying Perl is bad, I am just saying objectively it's been in decline since the 1990s against its rising competitors in all areas: universities, other research, Linux systems administration, application development and web development.
(2) Last thing I heard, Google's trying to minimize their Python usage in favor of Java.