As others have pointed out, trying to deduce anything about the security of Java or Python from the number of Google hits is pointless. Which of the two system

As others have pointed out, trying to deduce anything about the security of Java or Python from the number of Google hits is pointless. Which of the two systems is "more secure" is rather vague and certainly hard to answer. You might be able to get a better approximation by comparing the number of CVEs relating to each one in a given time frame. But you'll probably want to categorize CVEs by their level of severity or even weight them by their relevancy for the particular application you have in mind. For example, Python does not even try to provide a safe sandbox for web applets while Java does, so the current problem does not even have a meaningful equivalent in the Python world. My armchair guess is that neither of the two will have a completely terrible track record compared to the other one, and so picking either one should be fine from the point of view of security. In any case you'll have to respond to eventual problems in a timely manner.