By the time 1997 arrived the number of web sites on the internet was growing exponentially and most of these web sites were being implemented using the Apache web server. It was around this time that Andy Gutmans and Zeev Suraski launched the PHP 3 project, a project designed to take PHP to the next level. One of the key achievements of the PHP 3 project was to implement PHP as a robust Apache Module.
PHP 3 was implemented using a modular approach that made it easy for others to extend functionality, and also introduced the first elements of object-orientation that would continue to evolve through subsequent releases.
The combination of PHP 3 and Apache quickly lead to the widespread adoption of PHP and it is commonly estimated that, at its peak adoption level, PHP3 was used to power over 10% of all web sites on the internet.
