Well, it is worth understanding how the index works (as an aggregation of search engine results, which may change depending on how search engines index their co

Well, it is worth understanding how the index works (as an aggregation of search engine results, which may change depending on how search engines index their content). Reality check: I really doubt that any language would lose some 25% of its user base overnight. There's no explanation for why that would happen. The TIOBE index is at best a very rough measure of popularity. It may reasonably distinguish between "very popular" and "not so popular", but beyond that it doesn't have a whole lot of scientific value.