The idea of real time communication is similar to IRC, but remember that it's just a protocol. The big difference here is what you can do with how that data is presented to users.

There are some really neat things you can do with HTTP and a browser that IRC clients lack. The whole rendering a page with text, images, and markup together adds a lot to the experience that you just don't get with IRC. Great job friendfeed - it looks like this brings together the strengths of each.