We’ve previously covered Greasemonkey, an unbelievably useful Firefox extension that allows you to run user-created scripts that enhance what Firefox can do. Now, these scripts are no longer confined to Firefox. Chrome, Opera, and Safari also have support for user scripts, although sometimes with limitations. These scripts provide a huge range of capabilities, like revising YouTube video controls and adding email notification icons to the browser window. There are thousands of such scripts available at UserScripts.org, so we here at Make Tech Easier decided to sift through the pile and pick out some of the very best ones. Without further introduction, here are the scripts.
Note: MakeTechEasier could not possibly test all scripts on all browsers and all platforms for every website affected by these scripts. We can make no guarantees about the effectiveness or security of user-written browser scripts.
1. Download From YouTube
There are multiple methods for downloading YouTube videos to the local disk. This particular script was highlighted because it provides multiple download formats, and cleanly integrates into the existing YouTube interface. You can download videos in the format of your choice directly from the YouTube video page.
2. RapidShare Autowait
As the name implies, this script removes some of the hassle of downloading from RapidShare. While you’d normally have to wait until RapidShare is ready to start your download, this script will let you “just open all links in tabs and go play outside”.
3. Super iGoogle
For those who’ve always wanted to like iGoogle but were unhappy with the cluttered layout, this script comes flying to the rescue in red and blue spandex. Not only does it remove lots of clutter (sidebars, outrageously huge header, etc) it lets you specifically choose which page elements will be shown at any given time.
As a down side though, it doesn’t work cleanly with all iGoogle themes.
4. Google Image Relinker
To avoid accusations of “stealing” images, Google Image Search links to the pages which contain the images, instead of directly to the image itself. This is good for the sites hosting the images, but it can be annoying for those who have to browse through large quantities of images to find what they need. This script, and others like it, bypass the hosting site and take you directly from the search results to the image.
5. Remove All Facebook Ads
Ads are what give us many of the free things we get online, and without them there wouldn’t be great sites like MakeTechEasier. There are, however, situations where ads can get out of control and become distracting. If you want to remove Facebook’s targeted ads, this script will take care of that.
6. Last.fm Lyrics
This script works on Last.fm song pages to include the lyrics from the song. The information is pulled from Wikia which has a large user-contributed database of song lyrics.
There are thousands more user-created browser scripts available online. If you’ve got any favorites you’d like to share with us, please drop a note in the comments!
