Many people already blogged about this article. I made the same experiment. It works.
If you want to find say xyz@gmail.com is invisible or not.
Open your gtalk app and type this email address in top search textbox

Click the profile, it opens in new window as usual

Click on the down arrow button in the top right corner of the window, and you can see Go off the record link there.

And type any chat, say “hi”

You will get a red text showing the “person is offline , can’t receive the message right now ” implies the  person is offline

(The above pic shows user is actually offline)

If this message does not appear, it means the user is invisible

(The above picture shows user is invisible- since no warning message in red color)

To know more about gmail and gmail chat visit my post series

http://www.sajithmr.com/series/gmail-architecture/

Regards

Sajith

Tags: chat, chatting, check, featured, gmail, gtalk, hack, invisible, off the record