BitlBee is an IRC to-other-chat-networks gateway. This means that if you use an existing chat program, such as Google Talk, Jabber, Twitter, AIM, or Facebook, you can use BitlBee to chat over those protocols via IRC. The first question when a non-IRC user hears about BitlBee is, why would you want to do this? while IRC users respond with excitement. The major benefit is that by using IRC, you can effectively chat with buddies over Google Talk using the same client software as you use to chat on IRC. This reduces the number of programs you have to learn. While this may not seem impressive at first, consider that each program typically has its own keyboard shortcuts and distinct interface. Also, each vendor frequently changes the appearance of their application, requiring you to re-learn how to use the tool. On the other hand, IRC clients are fairly simple in their user interface and IRC interactions are fairly standardized.

The other reason BitlBee is useful...