Customizing Firefox

.. adding some grease for a smooth ride

Over a month ago I blogged about how I pimped my Firefox. In the list of extensions that I use I also have the Greasemonkey extension. I only very briefly described it:

my blog entry

Last but not least

Greasemonkey

This one is one of the best. It adds the possibility to run user scripts on any page. There are so many user scripts created by so many people that probably at least one will suit you.

This is way, way too little information to get anyone as excited about Greasemonkey as I am. So I will follow up and will tell some more.

What is Greasemonkey?

Greasemonkey is a Firefox extension which lets you to "user scripts" to any web page to change its behavior. In much the same way that user CSS lets you take control of a web page's style, user scripts let you easily control any aspect of a web page's design or interaction. You can add extra functionality or delete unwanted ads. There are hundreds if not thousands userscripts available.

User scripts are bits of JavaScript that can use the DOM to access the page to add or rewrite links. Rewrite URLs. You name it. If you want to create scripts on your own then go to Dive into Greasemonkey for an excellent tutorial.

As said, there are numerous scripts that can be easily installed. Here is the list that I currently use.

General user scripts

• Linkify Plus
  Turn plain URLs into links. Supports http, https, ftp and email addresses.
• Zoom Image
  Displays a small popup over images that allows zooming in or out.

Del.icio.us

• AutoDelicious
  Adds Auto-Complete capabilities to the del.icio.us posting page.
• Del.icio.us delete item
  Adds a "delete this item link" while viewing your del.icio.us items.
• TagRenameDelete
  Allows you to rename or delete the del.icio.us tags on the front page.
• del.icio.us skin
  Adds a skin to del.icio.us
• del.icio.us undupe
  Remove redundant del.icio.us entries from a page, leaving only the first entry for a given URL.

Blogger

• Blogger enhancements v1.1
  Keep current time on posts. Handy when you start a post and finish it later.
• Blogger large post editor
  The Blogger post editor really is too small. This user script sets the editor's width to 100% and makes it higher and also makes the title field wider. It works for both plain and rich editing.
• Blogger large template editor
  The template editor is also too small. This user script hides the navbar setting and doubles the editor's height.
• Blogger tag adder
  Add Technorati tags in the Blooger post editor.

Specific user scripts

• Dilbert Lite
  Removes unnecessary ads from Dilbert.
• Nu Compact
  Nu.nl is a Dutch news site. This user script deletes pictures from the frontpage stories so only the links are visible.
• Google Media Search
  Gives quicklinks for search strings to find directories of media files.

Now, go and give it a spin. Install the Greasemonkey extension and go and find some useful userscripts.

You're browsing will never be the same again!

Tags:

• firefox
• extension
• greasemonkey
• user script
• customize
• web2.0
• internet