Mibbit Makes IRC Easy for Newbies

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.