IE8 is the last version of the Internet Explorer Web browser. At least, that’s what I’m hearing through the grapevine. It seems that Microsoft is preparing to throw in the towel on its Internet Explorer engine once and for all.

And just what will be its replacement? I’m getting conflicting stories on that one. Some are still claiming that Microsoft will go with WebKit, which, thanks to the popularity of Apple’s Safari browser and also Google’s Chrome, is rapidly becoming a de facto standard for all non-IE and non-Firefox implementations.

Others insist that that the whole WebKit story is merely a feint and that Microsoft will in fact be adopting a brand-new engine coming out of its Microsoft Research division.

Is IE8 the end of the line for Internet Explorer? |Enterprise Desktop | Randall C. Kennedy | InfoWorld

Google Inc is seeking to blur the line between the telephone and the computer even further with the introduction of Google Voice on Thursday.

The new service weaves traditional phone features with Google’s Gmail email product, allowing a person to store transcripts of voicemail phone messages in their email inbox and to find a specific nugget of information within a phone message as if trawling through a sea of emails.

The move comes as Google increasingly branches out from its stronghold in Internet search, as it seeks to carve out a role in everything from cell phones to personal productivity software.

And it demonstrates the company’s ability to fuse various technologies — home-grown and acquired — into new products, even as the economic recession puts the future of certain Google projects in question.

Google Voice is based on the technology of Grand Central Communications, a company that Google acquired in July 2007. After Grand Central remained silent for nearly two years under the Google flag, some observers wondered whether it had met the same fate as Dodgeball, a Google acquisition that was formally shut down this year.

Google turns voicemail into email | Technology | Reuters