Although nothing definite has been said, it is my belief that the hidden picture is intentional as a sort of new "easter egg". The squeeky nose is still present, and this has been reported in another thread just below yours. The other easter eggs in the about dialog are also present.
easter eggs don't work when i click on "continue" and the face open webpage with the wrong browser (on the page "it appears that..")
mIRC appears to use an Internet Explorer control to display the text on the second page, that being the case it might be tricky (but not impossible) to have it open another browser.