Top 10 articles, 5 June 09

Most popular this week has been our look at the top 10 industry-changing applications. In reality, precious few apps have truly changed the computing industry, and we examined the killer ones, including PGP encryption, QuarkXPress and Microsoft Office.

The launch of Microsoft's Bing search platform/decision engine has also garnered interest. UK users have yet to experience the full version as it's only available in a beta here, minus key features such as the travel comparison tool. However, our early tests show it has some way to go before overtaking Google.

Elsewhere, readers were extremely vocal in response to new government research that estimated £12bn worth of copyrighted content could be freely consumed through just one peer-to-peer network over a year. The majority pointed out that, as they wouldn't have bought the material anyway, where's the harm? You can vote on the issue or share your views in our internet downloading poll.

Top 10 industry-changing applications
Spectacular products that changed the way we work

Hands on: Microsoft Bing versus Google search
We've been testing Bing to see if it does what is promised

Illegal downloads cost Treasury billions
Intellectual property body publishes detailed report on copyright issues

Microsoft Bing goes live in the UK
Search service available to UK users ahead of global launch

Samsung readies 12-megapixel cameraphone
Pixon12 features advanced camera, touch-screen and GPS mapping

Wikipedia bans Church of Scientology editors
Site will block IPs and ban users after latest online spat

BT offers free broadband speed upgrades
Businesses given priority for the upgrade from 8Mbit/s to 20Mbit/s

Asus and Microsoft join forces against Linux
Firms launch web site promoting Windows for netbooks

Google unveils Search Appliance 6.0
New version will search and scale more than a billion documents

Google Squared launches to lukewarm response
Tool presents search results in a table format, but content needs work