You’re probably familiar with browser extensions, but there are many other ways to customize your browser and tweak websites. The web isn’t a one-way, passive medium – you have the ability to remix websites you view on the fly, adding features or changing their look.
Each of these methods has its own advantages and drawbacks. Bookmarklets are ideal for small buttons you click occasionally, while user scripts and user styles are easy ways to modify the websites you view, adding features or changing their look every time they load.
Extensions
Extensions, also known as add-ons, are the most powerful things you can install in your browser. Extensions can do almost anything, from adding new features to your browser’s interface to modifying every webpage that loads.
As extensions are basically additional programs that run inside your web browser, they take up additional system resources. Using many extensions can slow down your browser.
Extensions and add-ons are easy to find. We’ve got a lists of the best Firefox add-ons and best Chrome extensions, or you can just browse the Firefox add-ons or Chrome extensions sites.
Bookmarklets
Bookmarklets are small bits of JavaScript (the code that runs on webpages) that are stored as a bookmark. When you click the bookmark, the JavaScript code in the bookmarklet runs on the current webpage. Erez recently extolled their advantages - they don’t always run in the background, so replacing extensions with bookmarklets frees up system resources.
Some examples of bookmarklets include Share buttons, which share the current page on social networking sites when clicked, or a password revealer, which runs JavaScript on the page to reveal a password that appears as ***** characters.
Bookmarklets can’t replace all extensions, though. Bookmarklets only run when you click them, so they can’t automatically do something to every webpage you load. They also can’t add user interface elements, such as toolbar buttons, to your browser.
To find bookmarklets, check out the Marklets search engine, which we’ve covered in the directory.
User Scripts
If you’ve heard of the popular Greasemonkey extension, you’ve heard of user scripts. Think of user scripts like bookmarklets that always run when certain webpages load – a user script can run on every webpage or only specific websites. User scripts straddle the line between bookmarklets and extensions – they’re just JavaScript code that runs on the current page, but they run automatically.
To use user scripts in Firefox, you’ll need Greasemonkey installed. Chrome users can install user scripts as if they were extensions – Chrome converts the user script into an extension when you install it. You can also try the Tampermonkey extension for Chrome, which is a Greasemonkey-style user script manager that adds additional features scripts may require.
Check out UserScripts.org to browse for and install user scripts. You can also try the Greasefire extension for Firefox, which shows you user scripts that work with the websites you visit.
We've covered lots of things you can do with Greasemonkey in the past.
User Styles
User styles are like themes for websites. A user style – usually associated with the Stylish browser extension – is like a user script, but it contains CSS style sheet code instead of JavaScript code. User styles can add additional CSS rules to a page, changing that page’s design - for example, you can install a user style that replaces the new Gmail look with the old Gmail look. Unlike user scripts, user styles are focused on customizing the look or layout of a page.
To use user styles, you’ll need Stylish for Firefox or Stylish for Chrome. After installing the extension, check out UserStyles.org to download user styles.
Because of the way Firefox works, user styles can actually customize and tweak parts of Firefox’s interface, too.
Check out our guide to Stylish for information on creating your own user styles.
Themes
Themes are an obvious way to customize your browser, but we can’t leave them out. They don’t add new features or modify webpages, but they do put a new look on your browser’s interface. Major browsers like Chrome and Firefox both support themes, which you can find on the Chrome themes and Firefox themes websites.
How do you customize your browser? Do you stick with extensions, or do you use bookmarklets, user scripts, and user styles, too? Leave a comment and let us know.
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