Google watch update

According to this article on silicon.com, Google's next release in their ever-growing list of products could be an IM client. I have to say that I am powerfully curious as to what they have up their sleeves. All this recent acquiring of key companies, hiring of really smart people, etc., has got to be with some grand plan in mind:

Right or wrong, the guesswork is a seemingly irresistible sport among technology buffs and investors, driving endless speculation about Google's next steps and perpetuating a Wonka-like mystique about the company. Google, founded in 1998, has also been rumoured in the last year to be working on a web browser, a thin-client operating system, and a searchable digital archive of library and reference material, supposedly code-named Project Ocean.

To be sure, it's not a stretch to imagine Google's future. Just look at its past. In six years, the company has gone from a straightforward search engine to a web portal extraordinaire, with an advertising network, comparison shopping service, email and web publishing products.

My (crackpot) theory? They're building a giant, distributed, web-based operating system, accessed from anywhere by thin clients. A global personal computer. You subscribe, and you get data storage, email, IM, whatever; maybe you purchase individual licenses to use various software on your account. In the future, you won't need to take a computer with you anywhere. It'll be everywhere you go. (Via Slashdot)