Internet Relay Chat or better known as just IRC is a thing of the past, especially after the arrival of Meebo Rooms and other instant messengers like GTalk, AOL etc… but a lot of people still use it to communicate with a group of people. It’s sometimes used to share files as well.
In spite of being so handy, people find it a little hard to use IRC. Primarily because IRC needs a client and requires you to learn some commands to connect to an IRC server and join the appropriate channels. Webware spotted a new, web-based IRC client called Mibbit, which promises to remove all the hassles involved.
Regardless of being web-based, Mibbit provides all the functionality that a standard desktop IRC client offers. You don’t need to sign up for the service to use it, but by registering you can customize the look and feel of the site, and soon you’ll also be able to log your conversations as well.
Its nifty tabbed AJAX interface gives you a desktop client like feel, but the best part is their search engine which can find channels by keywords. If you are feeling a little bored, give it a try. They even have a Mibbit widget, which you can embed on your own site and enable your visitors to participate in your channel. See the widget in action below:
I’m impressed and I’ll certainly add Mibbit to my bookmarks, but can’t find enough reasons to dump my favorite Chatzilla.
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wrote, on April 15th, 2008
I’ve been trying Mibbit and for the experience I’ve had, it complete sucks. You can have the client embedded on a webpage, but then its still not upto the mark. Its pretty unstable, misses connections and has lots of issues on performance…
Other clients are lot better, both text based, GUI and tabbed based. I personally use Opera for IRC and it seems to be good enough for most things!!
wrote, on April 15th, 2008
I may join you in adding the bookmark but whether I go any further is a different matter. The scary world of IRC is not ready for me yet !
wrote, on April 15th, 2008
Thanks Thilak…
You just can’t imagine how badly I want something like this…
wrote, on April 15th, 2008
If I am going to use IRC, I will need Mibbit!
wrote, on April 16th, 2008
Saptarshi: I somewhat agree with you, which is why I haven’t given up on Chatzilla yet
wrote, on April 16th, 2008
Am a user of Skype, we use it as an instant messaging and file transfer service in our office environment. We don’t talk much in the office…hahahahah. What advantages would Mibbit offer over Skype?
wrote, on April 16th, 2008
SEO Man: Skype and IRC are two different things. Basically, IRC is not so secure and not suitable for private conversations.
wrote, on April 19th, 2008
Looks much better than the original MIRC client. But IRC smells a tad old tech for me.