I’ve had the idea of writing about the future of Joomla for a couple of years but, each time I think about starting to write, I have this sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach and give up.  The main reason I can’t get motivated to write about Joomla is that I can’t answer the question, “What’s the point?”  Would anything I write or, for that matter, anything anyone else writes about Joomla change the direction of the product or change anyone’s decision to use it?

What’s happening with Joomla?  Does anyone know?  To be honest, no-one knows what’s happening or, if there are people who do know, they’re not saying.  One clear sign of what’s happening is summed-up in the following infographicsource: Google Trends:

 The normal way to discover the exact version of Joomla that a website is to login to the backend.How to check the Joomla version?, Joomla Documentation, updated 16-Nov-2021  This is fine if you have some kind of access to the website but there may be other reasons why you need to know if a website uses Joomla and, perhaps importantly, what is the exact version it uses.

As we saw before in my last article, there are browser tools (e.g. Wappalyzer) that may give a general indication about the underlying technology that a website uses.  While it may or may not be a good thing that people can discover the technology that a website uses, there are also methods that website managers can use to conceal that information from prying eyes; this is usually achieved by writing .htaccess and rules and strategically locating them in those folders you want to keep secure from prying eyes. We will not discuss how to do that in this article but, it’s fair to say that most website managers are either (a) unaware of these possible exposures or (b) do not use additional security methods.

The internet is full of websites that explain how to discover the identity of Joomla websites.Examples include:  How to Detect Joomla Websites, Thorsten Frommen, 2-Feb-2017; How to check the version of Joomla without hacking?, GavickPro, 11-Aug-2016

One of my favourite resources is an article written about a long time ago entitled How to quickly know the version of any Joomla website.  I’ve been meaning to preserve this information in case the website is unavailable but I strongly encourage people to visit https://www.itoctopus.com; furthermore, if you live in North America and you need help with your Joomla website, contact the site owner and get his expert help.  In the meantime, I've written a small form below that “automates” the copy-and-paste method I’ve been using for years.

Important note:  This article men­tions several in­stant­ly recog­nisable brand names; there’s no­thing inher­ently wrong with the com­panies or or­gan­i­sa­tions behind those names.  The pur­pose of this ar­ticle is to warn readers about frau­dulent “re­search” claim­ing that these busi­ness­es use Joomla.

If you’re wondering what “well known” organisations—recognisable, iconic brands—are currently using Joomla to power their websites, you’ll probably do what most people do:  use your favourite search engine and search for “businesses using Joomla”.  Joomla is used to power a lot of websites on the internet but, when you look at the results of your query you may be wondering if what you’re seeing is for real.

“What?”, you ask, “eBay uses Joomla to power their websites!”.source: https://community.joomla.org/blogs/community/ebay-chooses-joomla.html.  This announcement—in 2010—is used as “authoritative research” by other commentators.  The eBay community portal uses Lithium CMS today. Well of course eBay—a $27 billion company with twelve and-a-half thousand employees—doesn’t use Joomla to power one of the largest global online marketplaces in the world.  eBay doesn’t use Joomla; nor does the Harvard University, Lipton Tea, Holiday Inn hotels, the Guggenheim museum, General Electric or, would you believe, Linux.  These organisations and businesses do not use Joomla; we cannot verify if any of them have ever used Joomla.  But that’s not what dozens of websites are saying.  We’ll look at what’s really at play here and so that you understand the truth behind these long-playing scams.

The source of much of this false narrative was an article published on the Joomla! Community Magazine™ in 2012.10 Most Popular Websites Using Joomla!, Joomla! Community Magazine, 1-Jul-2012..  Let’s look at the websites listed there: