From The New York Times:

"Google executives say they plan to unveil on Wednesday a "communications tool" that is potentially a clear step beyond the company's search-related business focus.

While executives would not disclose what the new software tool might be, Google has long been expected to introduce an instant messaging service to compete with services offered by America Online, Yahoo and MSN from Microsoft."

Hold on tight, because MSN Messenger might get some competition...

This can only be good news, I would be very interested to see what google do to try and compete with MSN messenger.