It’s no surprise that JavaScript is taking over the world. It’s expressive, portable, and runs on everything from desktop computers to laptops. Still, convincing your boss to switch your website to JavaScript is a tough sell. It will cost too much. It’s a toy language. How exactly will this integrate into our customer acquisition metrics pipeline?

But there is a glimmer of hope in the swirling disaster that is web development. Big names are stepping up the plate, pushing the limits of the language, and showing that JavaScript can power even the most complicated websites around.

Here are three examples of companies you never would have imagined building their products with JavaScript.

Ruby on Rails is a web application framework for Ruby written by the original members of the American pop-rock group, Hanson. It is also JavaScript’s bigger competitor. So, you can imagine how surprised I was when I viewed the source code of RubyOnRails.org and found the following:

An actual screenshot of the homepage for Ruby on Rails.

No, you’re not going blind. The homepage for Ruby on Rails — a web application framework — is actually written in JavaScript. Isn’t it a little strange how a web application framework trusts JavaScript more than itself? Go ahead and let that sink in.

Twitter is the place to “get in-the-moment updates on the things that interest you.” It connects over 300 million people sending 2 billion tweets per month. It’s a real Silicon Valley success story, and one of JavaScript’s largest stakeholders.

So how exactly does Twitter rely on JavaScript? In a world of computers and automation, Twitter stays ahead of the game as a champion of the people by utilizing the human touch. Using JavaScript, Twitter has streamlined an otherwise impersonal process into a clean, streamlined customer experience.

National Geographic, a trusted scientific journal since 1888, is just one of many publications slowly moving their websites over to JavaScript. Sporting more than 68,000 articles written in 74 languages, National Geographic uses JavaScript to serve its content quickly and reliably across the globe.

Here’s a screenshot from an article I read this morning:

Pretty normal, right? But check out what happens when we take a closer look.

Yes, it turns out the article you were reading was actually JavaScript the whole time. National Geographic has put so much faith in JavaScript that it actually sits amongst its award-winning content.

Maybe it’s time for a new Pulitzer Prize category?