Previously the message suggested that people go to Google News if they are looking for something to read, however, the message now reads:

"No new mail! Want to read updates from your favorite sites? Try Google Reader"

I was curious, is this a personalised message now or is it simply that Google have updated it? Maybe it's a sign that the Gmail/Google Reader team are communicating with each other?

I would love to see the some of the Reader features/system integrated into my Gmail without using a Greasemonkey script.

Yeah I've been getting that alot too... same message

Yeah, it's been there for about a month now, I think.