ChatZilla

ChatZilla is an IRC client for Mozilla-based browsers such as Firefox, introduced in 2000. It is cross-platform open source software which has been noted for its consistent appearance across platforms, CSS appearance customization and scripting.

Early history

On April 20, 1999, it was reported that Mozilla, at the time the open-source arm of AOL's Netscape Communications division, had announced the commencement of "an instant messaging and chat project with the stated goal of supporting a wide variety of chat protocols, including the venerable Internet Relay Chat." Other companies were also developing chat systems. "'We recognize that there's a lot of interest in the instant messaging space,' said AOL spokesperson Catherine Corre, referring to the Mozilla project. 'This is a recognition of the interest in that area.'" At the time, the new chat client proposal was reported as being "competition" to AOL's own AOL Instant Messenger chat client, and on April 21, 1999, the announcement was rescinded "pending further review by Netscape." Independently, programmer Robert Ginda developed an IRC client and submitted it to the Mozilla project, which as of September 1999 planned to introduce it with the planned release of Mozilla browser. Named "ChatZilla," the client was available in development form in May 2000 for the Netscape 6.01 browser, and Mozilla 0.8.