I browse a lot of websites. I’ll admit it. Sometimes I find that there is one simple way to improve a website - one minimal change - that could make it so much better. A button here, a link there. Luckily, this is where my love for Firefox Extensions comes in - the GreaseMonkey extension allows you to change pretty much anything about a website’s look, feel, or function through user scripts.

Its best illustrated with an example. I am an avid Gmail user, and find the email service very functional and simple. However, I don’t understand why they didn’t include a Mark As Read button for the inbox. It’s just asking to be there, but its not. Here’s where GreaseMonkey comes in - once GreaseMonkey is installed, I simply look for a Gmail Mark As Read Button script at Userscripts.com, a site devoted to collecting GreaseMonkey scripts.

Here’s a list of GreaseMonkey scripts that I have installed currently:

• Google
• Gmail Mark Read Button - see above
• Gmail Signature Float - Floats your signature above replied/forwarded message instead of below (default)
• Gmail+Google Reader - Integrates Google Reader into the Gmail Menu (this is for sure going to be incorporated soon into gmail)
• Google Calendar Wheel - Allows calendar scrolling via mousewheel or two-finger scrolling
• Hide Gmail Ads - It hides Gmail ads.
• Facebook
• Facebook Autologin v2 - no more having to press login despite having your login information saved
• inYOfacebook - allows you to see people’s enlarged profile picture in search queries (very cool)
• Facebook EZ Poke - no more poke confirmation page - it all happens with the click of the EZ Poke button
• Last.fm
• Chart Changes - Places a +/- value next to songs, artists, or albums tracking week to week changes
• Artist Fan Rank - lets you know when people are in the top fan ranks for artists, songs, or albums
• General
• Greased Lightbox - Adds lightbox functionality to links that point to images. Very cool.

The vast majority of those scripts came from Userscripts.com, which has a large collection GreaseMonkey scripts you can search through. Its a great resource, and the key to adding website functionality that you have always wanted. There is also a variety of sites that have discussed the best GreaseMonkey scripts out there.

My suggestion is to install GreaseMonkey, check out the scripts that I use and see if they are beneficial to you, and then search for the sites you visit on Userscripts.com. GreaseMonkey can be an amazing asset, and its quite easy to use to boot! Enjoy!