Did Microsoft Buy Netcraft?

“Okay, I’m not seriously suggesting Microsoft is paying off
Netcraft to produce positive survey results (although this is
certainly a standard operating procedure for Microsoft). But
something is odd, if not rotten, in the state of Netcraft. I have
often cited Netcraft web server surveys as evidence that open
source beats closed source. The Netcraft surveys almost always
showed Apache leading Microsoft IIS by a wide margin, and showed
Apache growing as Microsoft IIS market share was shrinking. Lately,
however, Netcraft began to claim that Apache market share has been
shrinking rapidly while Microsoft IIS has been gaining the market
share lost by Apache. Netcraft even proposed that, ‘Microsoft’s
recent gains raise the prospect that Windows may soon challenge
Apache’s leadership position.’ Microsoft IIS may displace Apache as
the most-used web server? Could this really be true, or is this
reporting from the Bizarro world…?”

Complete
Story