[SomeOtherGuy]

>Erlang is interpreted

No it isn't, it is compiled to bytecode and executed on a virtual machine, just like most scripting languages are.

>Since this is not about a simple CGI application a benchmark in which you compare the running time of a compiled executable with the interpretation and running time a another program it doesn't make a lot of sense.

Read the site, this concern is explicitly addressed. The tests are long running, not short tests repeated a million times. So the byte code compilation step ends up too small to notice. That is why using a PHP bytecode caching plugin doesn't increase PHP's performance on the shootout, and why java isn't dead last from the massive startup time of the JVM.

>Also this performance usually isn't the best way to argument about languages for web applications

This is a myth. Very few web applications actually have one CPU intensive portion that can be moved out into a C module. Most web apps have pretty flat profiles, where overall language speedups make the biggest difference. When 90% of your time is spent in 10% of the code, a C module is a reasonable option. When 90% of your time is spent in 90% of your code, your only option is a faster language.