Mibbit: Web-based IRC client makes IRC look easy

Filed under: Internet, Web services, web 2.0

Mibbit: Web-based IRC client makes IRC look easy

by Brad Linder Apr 14th 2008

Mibbit is a new IRC client that -- wait, they still make IRC clients? While AOL, MSN, Google, Skype and others dominate the world chat scene these days, once upon a time IRC or Internet Relay Chat was king. And while IRC doesn't get much attention these days, it's still alive, kicking, and useful if you need a multi-user chat system for communicating with co-workers, open source project developers, or anonymous folks you might want to trade files with.

So what makes Mibbit different from old school IRC clients? It's web-based, which means you can run it from anywhere. But despite the fact that you can run Mibbit from your web browser, you get all of the features you'd expect from a desktop based IRC client, and then some.

There's a search engine that lets you find channels by keyword. You can change the color scheme, and even use a built in translator to communicate with users in different languages. Each new channel or server screen opens in a new Mibbit tab, and if you're running Mibbit in a tabbed browser, you'll get cute little alerts like "Server stuff!" or "People said stuff!"

There's even a Mibbit widget that you can install on your web site to let visitors chat with you via IRC.

[via WebWare]

Tags: chat, irc, mibbit

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Wiser said 10:04AM on 4-14-2008

Been using Mibbit for a few months now and all I can say is that it just keeps getting better and better!

WolvenSpectre said 10:33PM on 4-14-2008

It does have some browser compatibility issues with some browsers and some other web applications.

amri nur muhammad said 7:53AM on 4-15-2008

remeber me

James said 7:54AM on 4-15-2008

It is a great idea, however they didn't think it through entirely. As I expected, many servers are refusing the connection due to the fact that too many users are already connected from mibbit.com

rao.murlidhar said 4:18AM on 4-17-2008

another web based chat client which supports irc is Communication Tube at http://www.communicationtube.net/

though it has do more to get really noticed.

Joseph Dalrymple said 6:15PM on 4-17-2008

IRC is far from dead and I don't think there was ever a slow point. With the large increase in new messengers, IRC has always been and will always be very popular especially in the development community. I use Mibbit when I am unable to connect to IRC on my current computer, but IRC clients are being seen more and more as web based. There are many desktop clients out there, but more and more people are turning to web based applications for all their needs.

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