Stories by: Nancy Weil

Google is launching a beta version of its own Web browser on Tuesday in more than 100 countries, the company announced Monday in a blog posting.

Some of the most oft-repeated comments attributed to Bill Gates through the years were not uttered by Bill Gates. Take for instance "640K ought to be enough for anybody," which he supposedly said in 1981 to note that the 640K bytes of memory in IBM's PC was a significant breakthrough. Or his alleged comment that if General Motors "had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving [US]$25 cars that got 1,000 miles per gallon."

The predictable flood of 2008 IT prognostications has rolled in over the past few weeks and we have listened to analysts, vendors, consultants and our geek friends, accepting some forecasts and rejecting others. Turns out we did pretty well culling the wheat from the chaff last year and gazing ahead, though maybe we weren't bold enough in our declarations. So, this year we'll stretch a little and predict:

The question of whether machines will be capable of human intelligence is ultimately a matter for philosophers to take up and not something that scientists can answer, an inventor and a computer scientist agreed during a debate night at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Google has laid speculation to rest -- it is buying YouTube for US$1.65 billion in a stock transaction.

Google attorneys will square off against the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) at a Feb. 27 hearing over the issue of providing the government with information about searches for pornography on the company's site.

A worm that affects Linux systems and spreads by exploiting Web server-related vulnerabilities has been reported by antivirus companies, but so far Linux.Plupii, which is also known as Lupper, hasn't spread much and isn't seen as much of a threat.

If Google would agree to make a preliminary injunction become permanent in a lawsuit Microsoft filed against it related to a former employee who has gone to work for Google, the matter could be settled, Microsoft said in a statement issued Tuesday.

A road map aimed at guiding governments and companies in the development of open information and communication technologies was presented Friday at a World Bank meeting in New York by a group comprised of academics, government officials and industry representatives. The Open ePolicy Group contends that the adoption of open standards is vital to global economic growth and innovation.

Computer Associates International (CA) will allow access to individuals and groups in the open-source software community to technology included in 14 of its U.S. patents and counterpart patents held in other countries, the company said Wednesday, as it also announced a long-term patent cross-license deal with IBM.

Linux is easier to deploy and maintain than its reputation might suggest, IT company executives said at LinuxWorld this week.