Google Insights: Microsoft Surface, Alan Turing

Alan Turing (1912-1954) was an English mathematician who worked at Britain's code-breaking center during the Second World War. Turing was highly influential in the development of computer science and played a role in the formalization of the concept of algorithms with his famous Turing machine. On June 23, what would have been Turing's 100 birthday, the father of computer science was honored with a Google Doodle of a functioning Turing machine.

Also popular over the past seven days was Microsoft's new Surface tablet. The tablet was revealed by Microsoft on June 18 and is already being described as an "iPad challenger" despite the fact that prices and release dates are still to be announced. The tablet boasts a 10.6-inch (26.9-cm) high-definition screen and either 32 or 64 gigabytes of memory.

Appearing in tenth position in this week's charts is the upcoming Steven Soderbergh movie Magic Mike, which is due out in the US on June 29. The plot revolves around a young male stripper learning the tricks of his trade while trying to make a life outside the seedy nightclub world.

The search terms with the most significant growth worldwide in the last seven days, as measured by Google Insights and recorded June 25, were :

01. alan turing (Breakout*)
02. Microsoft surface (Breakout*)
03. (Japanese for ‘Typhoon') "台風" (+1,100%)
04. (Japanese for ‘Typhoon information') 台風情報" (+700%)
05. kate upton (+250%)
06. dnf (+130%)
07. (Japanese for 'weather forecast') 天気予報 (+70%)
08. buienradar (+60%)
09. facebook en espanol (+60%)
10. magic mike (+60%)

*Breakout defines a search term that has experienced a change in growth greater than 5,000 percent.