Couple of months back I had covered Greasemonkey, a powerful and all-favorite firefox extension. Now I am taking it further and want to present some of the coolest greasemonkey addons(aka scripts) out there letting you do crazy things such as: downloading apple trailers and clips from popular video sites(Youtube, GoogleVideo….etc), integrating google reader into gmail, adding mirror links to digg listings and etc… No-technical knowledge required, guaranteed.

GENERAL Browsing:

1. GoogleTagCloudMaker – generates tagcloud from Google search results and inserts it above sponsored links. Great for filtering and finding related keywords

(click to enlarge and open it in a new window)

2. Disable Text Ads – removes annoying inline contextual text ads from 3 major distributors: VibrantMedia(IntelliTXT), Kontera and Linkworth

3. RSS+Atom Feed Subscribe Button Generator – don’t bother looking for RSS subscription links again. This greasemonkey addon automatically finds RSS and Atom subscription links on a webpage and inserts feed subscription buttons() to the top left corner of the page. See screenshot from del.icio.us below

4. Textarea Backup – never retype lost emails, forum posts, feedback forms, blog comments, etc again. This addon automatically saves entered text after every 10 keystrokes so if the page is reloaded for whatever reason, be it browser crash or unintended exit, the text will be restored.

5. LookItUp – lets you highlight anyword and quickly look it up on wikipedia, a dictionary or whatever info database you like without leaving the page you’re on. The result is displayed directly on the webpage and can be instantly removed with a mouse click. Which dictionary is selected depends on customizable keystrokes. View demo screenshot(opens in a new window)

6. Linkify ting – converts plain text links into real clickable links so you don’t have to manually copy and launch them in a separate window. Examples;

• http://www.makeuseof.com (will be auto-converted to) -> http:www.makeuseof.com
• http://www.makeuseof.com -> http://www.makeuseof.com
• www.makeuseof.com -> http://www.makeuseof.com
• makeuseof.com -> http://www.makeuseof.com

7. Google MP3 – handy music player Greasemonkey script that inserts a play button next to any MP3 file you happen to stumble upon while browsing web so you can listen before you download.

VIDEO and TRAILERS:

8. Apple Trailer Download – lets you easily download full movie trailers from apple.com. Once you’re on a trailer page it adds a tiny menu(screenshot below), where you can select preferred resolution and download it using ‘right-click -> Save Link as’ combination.

9. Download Video – awesome Greasemonkey addon that lets you download video clips from YouTube, Google Video, Myspace, Metacafe, Break.com, Putfile, Dailymotion and Sevenload. The script shows a small download menu at the top of supported video pages(image below). (You’ll need to save files in .flv format or change extension afterwards)

GMAIL Goodies:

10. Gmail Super Clean – clean and distraction-free gmail. Looks great, check it out here
11. Gmail + Reader Integrator – integrates Google Reader into Gmail. This literally saves you one extra tab. Highly Recommended

(click to enlarge and open it in a new window)

12. Gmail Spam-count Hide – hides spam count, since no one needs it anyways

SITE SPECIFIC (Youtube, Myspace, Facebook, IMDB, Digg, Last.fm, del.icio.us)

13. del.icio.us Prettifier – lets you change font and link colors on del.icio.us. This is the only listed plugin that requires basic html knowledge.

14. IMDB enlarge actor pictures on hover – enlarges actor pictures in IMDB cast lists when you hover your cursor over that table row. Demo

15. AdSlicer for MySpace – removes all myspace ads and blank spaces they leave behind

16. YouTube Googler – this handy addon makes YouTube video pages look more like Google Videos. It moves comments to the sidebar and expands the video frame to take up as much space as possible, exactly like on Google Video. Demo

17. Facebook Auto-Colorizer – gives each profile a unique look by colorizing page based on the user’s photo. Demo

18. Digg – Add Mirror – excellent addon for Digg users that inserts links to DuggMirror, Coral Cache, Google Cache and Archive.org below each story’s digg-count. So, if the story source is down you still can easily view its mirror page from one of the sources.

19. Last.fm Artist Fan Rank – adds your or the page owner’s fan rank to artist, track, album charts, and album track listings.

20. Instead of 20′th Addon I am including quick Greasemonkey installation guide:

1. Install Greasemonkey from http://www.greasespot.net (firefox users only).
2. Restart Firefox(at this stage you should see tiny monkey face at the right-bottom corner of the screen).
3. Click on the any of the preferred addon links described in this post.
4. Locate “Install” button that’s shown in the upper-right corner of the opened page.
5. Done. Go and test it…

Technorati Tags: greasemonkey, userscripts, firefox