Google IM?

I'm not sure about this one...I.T Vibe reports that Google has announed that they are to launch their own Instant Messaging Client. Either this is I.T Vibe's idea of an April Fool's crack (I haven't found any other refernece to this), or this just has been simply lost in the news of the increased Gmail storage to 2gb. From the suspect story:

"The client features will utilise the features already existing in their portfolio, helping you to communicate with your peers by giving you suggestions based on what you say. For example, if John asks Judy what she fancies doing tonight the IM will use Google's Local feature to suggest a list of suitable activities back to them. Another interesting feature will be its ability to search for other people who are talking to your contacts, so if keywords match you can find people with similar interests and expand your own contact list."

Privacy advocates would have a heart attack with the following:

"They also aim to tie in googles adsense and news systems, delivering news stories and adverts relevant to what you are chatting about. The possibility to search together while chatting has great potential, not only for personal use, but for commercial practice as well."

So this has to be a April 1 thing, right?