GreaseMonkey

I started using OmniWeb instead of Firefox a couple months ago and so completely missed GreaseMonkey for Firefox. In case you’ve been living in my neighborhood (ie a cave) then you should really try it. From the site…

“Greasemonkey is a Firefox extension which lets you to add bits of DHTML (“user scripts”) to any webpage to change its behavior. In much the same way that user CSS lets you take control of a webpage’s style, user scripts let you easily control any aspect of a webpage’s design or interaction.”

First thing I did was check out the extensive list of scripts at the GreaseMonkey Script Repository. So far, my browsing experience has improved in the following ways…

  • GMail’s inbox now has a “Delete” button (which Google should’ve put there from the get go)

  • Flickr’s Flash presentation of images (and notes) are replaced with the original jpeg and a lightweight AJAX interface which loads much faster

  • CNN no longer has a column full of Ads (especially the slow-loading, browser-crashing Flash ones)

There are about a hundred more that I’ve not yet tried, but many of them look very useful.