Google to launch a Virtual World?

Rumor has it that Google is planning to launch a Second Life, virtual world type competitor. This comes from Techcrunch. Arguably, with their Google Earth product, they wouldn't have a hard time entering this space. We all ready know that they want to do something in the social networking space so this is probably tied to that. Maybe the next thing is a social network + virtual world + iGoogle type functionality. Now that's something I may actually consider joining.