It appears that Google are extending their reach beyond standard web and usenet resources into the realms of IRC networks. Tony Collen noted some unusual activity on a private network from a bot named “Eddie” sourced in Google’s IP block, which Google have indeed confirmed is “part of an experiment aimed at improving Google’s search quality”.
Seeing as much of the content of IRC network discussion is considered private in one way or another, I’m curious to see where it leads to. That said, at least one commentator on Tony’s site states that the bot doesn’t hang around long enough to log any chat, merely MOTD‘s, channels, nicknames and such like. Wait and see, I suppose.