Do you know Mibbit? It’s an awesome web based IRC client. IRC, for those not old enough to recall, meant chat long before instant messaging entered the scene and is still a very reliable option for group and peer-to-peer text communication.

You can take advantage of Firefox 3’s support for web-based protocol handling to make it your default IRC client and handle irc:// links whenever you found one.

Mibbit added the necessary interface short before Firefox 3 final release and I’ve proposed it to be included with Firefox by default. But you can add it right now.

First, you will have to enable registration of protocol web handlers from different domains.

• Enter about:config in the location bar and press Enter to access the advanced preferences.
• Look for gecko.handlerService.allowRegisterFromDifferentHost and double click it to set it to true.

Now click in the link below to add Mibbit as an irc: links handler.

Add Mibbit as an IRC handler

You will be prompted with a confirmation info bar. Press Add Application.

You can now select Mibbit as your irc:// links handler from the Application page in the Options dialog.

Now when you click on irc: links a new tab with Mibbit and a tab connected to the IRC server and channel.

I suggest setting gecko.handlerService.allowRegisterFromDifferentHost back to false to prevent malicious web sites offering their own protocol handlers.

In case you need to remove Mibbit as an irc:// handler, go back to the Applications page in the Options dialog. Look for irc in the content type column. Open the menu in the Action column and select Application Details…, select Mibbit and press Remove.