Beta leak sends Windows 7 searches soaring

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By Barry Collins

Posted on 2 Jan 2009 at 14:48

The arrival of Windows 7 beta code on file-sharing sites has resulted in rocketing interest in the next-generation operating system on search engines.

Click here for Jon Honeyball's first look at the Windows 7 beta 1 code.

Google Trends reveals that the volume of searches for "Windows 7" has more than doubled since the code was leaked on to BitTorrent and other file-sharing services a few days ago.

Perhaps worryingly for Microsoft, piracy hotspots such as Vietnam, Russia and China are among the regions making the most Windows 7 searches, according to the Google Trends stats.

The leaked beta is also the most popular software download in the Pirate Bay's Top 100 at the time of publication.

The Windows 7 beta is expected to form the cornerstone of Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer's keynote speech at the Consumer Electronics Show next week.

It doesn't appear to have any significant new features that weren't already unveiled by Microsoft at its Professional Developers Conference last October. However, it does boast the new Taskbar interface, which was missing from the pre-beta builds handed out to journalists and developers at PDC.

For a rundown of the 30 best features in Windows 7, buy this month's PC Pro magazine - on sale now