Wow-Style Chat with Various Channels

As a long-time WoW player one thing that frustrates me is the communication system in Minecraft. I think it would be great if there were more options for chatting when playing on an SMP, similar to the numerous channel options in World of Warcraft. Specifically, another channel similar to /say which allows you to communicate to those in your immediate vicinity without broadcasting your message throughout the entire server. Being able to create groups and group chat would be great too. It just seems like the options we have, either chatting with the whole server or clunkily DMing someone in-game are too limiting. Just a thought that would greatly improve SMPs.