(Courtesy of houltmac’s flickr feed)
The excitement about Windows 7 is so thick you can touch it. Ever since Microsoft apparently sent out invites in the last couple of weeks the Internet has been running rampant with screenshots, links and every piece of speculation about it and its upcoming release. For instance:
- Microsoft has their own Windows 7 page up and just a few days ago it was reported that it had an actual link to download the Windows 7 beta bits. Of course within a short period of time that link was gone. That alone caused a huge series of Tweets on Twitter.
- Paul Thurrott has posted screenshots of Windows 7 Build 6956 and has a lot of Windows 7 related bits – whether you like his style or access – you certainly get to see the goods by watching his site. He has an entire section of his site dedicated to Windows 7 related news. I have been following him for several years now and he is usually not too far off on his info/predictions.
- A Google search in the news section reveals about 4,200 sites that mention the phrase “windows 7” in the last 24 hours. On the blog search engine that phrase shows up almost 7,000 times!
- A search of the phrase “windows 7” on Microsoft’s Live Search website reveals: 221 results on YouTube; 89 on MSN Video; and 27 from Daily Motion. A specific search on YouTube itself actually shows 1,380 videos mentioning that phrase.
- A search on Twitter.com reveals a lot of people mentioning Windows 7 in their Twitter streams. There are roughly 125 mentions in the last 24 hours! Every time someone sees or hears about a page with screenshots then it gets posted on their stream and gets spread amongst the masses. At one time in the last few days the term Windows 7 actually was trending on the site (means it was getting a lot of mentions).
So why is there all this build up and excitement about an operating system?
One word – Hope. I know that seems a silly word for an operating system but it is what it is.
Many people have had a very negative experience with Windows Vista. I personally have not had those types of issues that leave me negative about Vista – it has had its hiccups but so did the venerated Windows XP. However, I do respect what I see and read about others experiences – those are as real to them as any I have had.
And who does not like to just have their hands on the latest and greatest of anything – it is why all the screenshot factory sites are so popular in this time frame before the release of a program, operating system, etc. People want to see the future – it gives them an appetite for it. Excitement.
And to be honest the more excitement that can be generated about anything then the better it will be in the long run no matter what it is.
So tell me – why are you excited about Windows 7?
