> look at the top 100 websites in the world; not a single one produced by Europe[1]

Did you actually read that link before you posted it? On that list there are sites hosted by companies based in Cyprus (xHamster), the Netherlands (booking.com), Poland (onet.pl, xnxx), and the UK (BBC).

It may surprise you to learn that all of those countries are, in fact, in Europe.

BBC and Onet are not in the top 100, but sure, I'll give you the other 2.

2 out of the top 100 come from Europe. Good job.

I think it rather means you should retract your statement.

It's a bit skewed to assume e.g. Google produces everything in the US; Google and many of those companies are multinationals, with both legal and development entities all over the world, including Europe. There's also the fact that a lot of European-based startups incorporate themselves in the US because of legal issues - it's easier to sell a US company's software in Europe than the other way around. A lot of US companies are required by law to only use US-made software, too. Probably leftovers from the Cold War.

> it's easier to sell a US company's software in Europe than the other way around

Well maybe this is the reason Europe's software is not generally competitive? If Europe discriminates against the sale of its own software, it's no wonder.

Apart from the Web itself being invented by a European at a European research center?

Debatable. Everyone loves to take credit for the invention of any revolutionary innovation. And indeed, credit can be spread all around.

It's like Europe claiming sole credit for the invention of the PC because Alan Turing was British even though Americans invented the integrated circuit and actually built the first viable PCs.

First you make an absurd statement as absolute fact, but now its "debatable". It looks to me like you are backtracking. HTTP came out of CERN... what exactly is it you want to debate about?

It's not an absurd statement, it's the truth. Europe can't compete with American web tech (and probably even software in general). Think about it. In your day to day dealings with computers, what percentage of the software you use is American/European? I'm betting it's something like 99:1 (unless you try to make the claim the Linux is Finnish even though the majority of the developers for it are American and the creator himself is an American citizen). Compare to cars, which are more evenly split between countries (Japanese, European, American, etc.).

I'm not backtracking on that argument.

OP made a poor attempt to excuse Europe's lack of competitiveness in the software/web tech scene by waving their hands and saying "We invented all of it" (which is highly debatable). Claiming that Europe invented the web because HTTP came out of CERN and some European person envisioned a global network is bogus. Those are only tiny parts of what make up "the web". You conveniently sweep ARPANET, TCP/IP, and other core web technologies under the rug.

Most software and languages I deal with are open source and the names I see associated with them seem very european to me. Im also pretty sure that these are the same tools that my fellow american developers that you are putting on a pedestal use as well. Just walk away, you really are backing yourself into a corner.

Yes, if you try really hard, you can pretend that Europe contributes just as much to the tech scene as America does.

I would say about half of the stuff on this list was either written in Europe or by Europeans that learned to code in Europe... and I didn't really have to try really hard or pretend, but by all means keep clutching to your silly nationalistic pride. https://www.quora.com/What-is-Facebooks-architecture-6

Spotify? Soundcloud?

American ignorance at its finest.

It's not competitive. Obviously every once in a while Europe will be able to make a popular web app. But for every European example I can give you 20 American examples.

I don't think you belong here.