Google-Specific Greasemonkey Scripts

It's been a while since I wrote about one of my favorite Firefox extensions: Greasemonkey. In today's article, I wanted to show how the scripts run via Greasemonkey could enhance one of the sites that most us visit & use on a daily basis: Google!

Multi-Column Google Search Results

This can be incredibly useful on wider monitors. It's configurable to 1, 2 or 3 columns.

Google FX

A plethora of options of improvements for Google like Autopager, Sidebars, MultiLanguage Suggest, ThumbShots, Image Preview, Toolbars, Filters & much more - Fully Customizable - includes 8 Theme Colors with Iconization.

Google Book Downloader

Download any book from books.google.com. I must admit, I've not used this one, but it sounds intriguing.

Google Secure Pro

I love this one. Although I have some extensions that cover some of this, none cover this many. Basically, it forces Google products to use (https) secure connection . Also compatible with Opera 9+. Supported: Gmail, Calendar, Docs, Reader, History, Bookmarks, Groups, Knol, Notebook, Webmasters, Voice, Contacts.

Google Enhanced Black

This Black Google script enhances all Google service pages with an inverted color-scheme for reduced eye fatigue; it also removes ads & clutter and improves page layout and readability by widening search results.

There are others out there, and MakeUseOf captures some of them in two articles I hope you enjoy as much as I did:
9 Greasemonkey Scripts For More Productive Google Search
5 Useful Greasemonkey Scripts To Enhance Google Calendar

With the so many Greasemonkey scripts out there, I'm sure there are a few that I don't know about. Should you come across any, please don't hesitate to share them with us in the comments.  ▣
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Must-Have Firefox Extensions & Add-Ons

Provided by TechnologyNomad.com

If you're a Firefox user, then you already know that one of the things that make this open-source browser so popular is its extensibility --the big galaxy of useful extensions you can use with it. I for one, have a couple of add-ons/extensions/plug-ins that I simply cannot continue online without. I'll even go out on a limb and say that Firefox's extensibility is the reason the browser has become my very desktop. But what are those browser extensions that turn Firefox from a regular browser to a down-right necessity?

Let's think of this in a different manner. When you buy a new computer, or you land a new job or whatever it is that presents you with the opportunity to start fresh, what are the first things you do?

You see for me, the first thing I do is jump on the native browser that came with the machine and go download Firefox. And I won't go into what other applications I download and/or seek; but for Firefox itself, I immediately start looking for the following core extensions:

It's worth noting that I'm using "extensions" to include add-ons, plug-ins and extensions (of course).

Like all extensions & add-ons, if you don't like one you can always uninstall it; which's much cleaner & simpler than uninstalling a full-blown application.

Greasemonkey

God, I can spend all day on this alone.

The Greasemonkey add-on allows users to install scripts that make on-the-fly changes to most HTML-based web pages. Basically, as Greasemonkey scripts are persistent, the changes made to the web pages are executed every time the page is opened, making them effectively permanent for the user running the script.

These scripts do not actually change the web site itself, but it changes the way Firefox interacts with the HTML on a web page to make it act in a way that is more user-friendly and/or befitting of one's needs. This change only occurs in your Firefox browser and only for the current session. It does not change any coding on the server side or to the web site itself. It simply changes how Firefox reads the code on the page and redisplays it to you with the aesthetic and functionality based on the directions/code of the script(s) you have installed. Every time you visit the web site, the script changes the page for you without you noticing it. There is no delay in the changes visible to the naked eye, usually. Some scripts allow you to auto-fill forms. You can even automatically retrieve data from other sites to make two sites act as one ... very mashups-like.

Greasemonkey allows you to stipulate what pages (and sub pages/directories) to run the script of your choice on. And the reverse is also true. Greasemonkey allows you to exclude certain sites/pages as well.

By itself, Greasemonkey does none of these things. In fact, after you install it, you won't notice any change(s) at all, until you start installing what are called "user scripts."

The "Swiss Army Knife" of Firefox extensions may seem like it requires a bit of ramp-up to get going, but it does not. You simply install those "user scripts" without as much as restarting your browser. There are literally thousands already written for you. To install these "user scripts," first you must install the Greasemonkey Firefox extension. Then head out to Userscripts.org and search for a web site or page you'd like to see optimized and in what manner and you're sure to find something.

Like I said, I could write about Greasemonkey alone. The fact is, there are definitely some "user scripts" that I seek out and install under Greasemonkey; but this is not the time or the place for that. I will tell you that you can find some for most popular sites. There are some that modify how Google presents search results, others that modify YouTube, some that add functionality to StumbleUpon, enhance Flickr, etc. What Greasemonkey scripts are amongst the must-haves is truly a personal thing.

Xmarks

Formerly known as Foxmarks, Xmarks syncs all your bookmarks (and bookmarklets of course) across all computers. As a fan and advocate of cloud computing (with some personally-put restrictions), Xmarks simply puts all your bookmarks & bookmarklets into the cloud so you can access them from any other computer connected to the internet. In addition to online backup, Xmarks is available for Firefox, Internet Explorer (IE) and Safari; so if you add a bookmark in one browser, it will automatically become available in your other browsers as well.

Xmarks has many other features that go beyond the scope of this specific post. One worth mentioning, however, is that Xmarks offers profiles allowing you to display certain bookmarks at certain locations (you may not want certain bookmarks, for example, to automatically be shown and/or available at work). For me, this is an absolute must, since bookmarklets I have created cannot become property of the company I work for; or disputed at any point to be so. Should you leave a workplace for which you had a profile location, you simply disable that location in your profile and they're gone once you sync up.

DownThemAll

Ever wanted to download all the articles, images (only GIFs, only JPGs, or both) on a web site but wish that you could grab them all at one time? DownThemAll does just that. DownThemAll is a selective, powerful download manager. It makes short work of snatching all the images on a page (including those links to the "bigger" or "zoom" versions), all the MP3s off a music or podcast blog, or any other kind of filter you can set up.

The only way to elaborate any more on this wonderful add-on is to build a small walk-through of it; which again steers away from the intention here. So ... I encourage you to try it out yourself and go from there. I'm confident you'll like it.

Better Gmail 2

It's no surprise that Gmail has become the web-mail of choice for many of us. However, there are some nuances that many have expressed; including the inability to use folders (as oppose to Gmail's labels). Better Gmail 2 addresses that and many others.

Better Gmail 2 is sure to impress you with what it offers. Amongst its lesser known features is the gem of hiding labels on the message rows. Only on mouse-over do you see the label that the message was tagged with.

Download Statusbar

Once you start downloading any thing, you're sure going to seek a much better tool than the one native to Firefox. When you are dealing with multiple downloads, it’s easy to get confused and lose track of your files. Sure, there are lots of download managers out there, but sometimes you want something that’s so discreet you barely even notice it. Is there a tool that will do the job?

Download Statusbar is a Firefox add-on that is very low-key. In fact, when you are not downloading, it is invisible, and when active, it is very, very discreet. Download Statusbar completely integrates Firefox's standard release, so there is nothing to configure before you start to use it. When you download a file, a very small download indicator (the statusbar) will appear at the bottom of your screen. From here you can control the download, pausing and re-starting in one click, running the file once it downloads, copying the URL and visiting the source website.

The Download Statusbar display makes it very easy to see what files you are downloading and how close to completion they are. If you open the add-on’s configuration options, you’ll find that the display and download are completely customizable. There are also a series of hints available on the Download Statusbar website that make your downloading even quicker. Simply put, it is effective, low-maintenance and very simple, and if you are a frequent downloader, it’s a must-have extension.

This, of course, serves a different purpose than DownThemAll (mentioned above), which allows you to download (automatically) several files at once. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I use & highly recommend both, and for different reasons.

Others

Most other extensions, plug-ins and add-ons are usually added later as you come across them. What I mean is that when you visit YouTube you'll quickly learn that you need to install the Flash plug-in; and if you visit an audio site that serves RealAudio files, you'll need to install that plug-in. And so on and so forth.

Without a doubt, there are other Firefox add-ons that I have installed; but they are specific to my needs. For example, I like having a tab-centric application (like Tab Mix Plus), an easier copy (as in copy & paste) solution like AutoCopy, and a few others. There are extensions that cater specifically to Developers, ones that cater to bloggers, and ones that cater specifically to laptop users ... to which I highly recommend FireFound and Meebo. The web-based instant messaging (IM) site offers an extension that especially goes well with portable (run off of a USB drive or something similar) versions of Firefox. Again, I'm sure there are many other extensions out there, but these are the ones I rush to add when I have a fresh copy of Firefox.

As a Firefox user what extensions/add-ons are the ones you rush to add when you have a fresh copy of Firefox? Share those with us in the comments.  ▣

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Chrome Natively Supports Greasemonkey

Greasemonkey is a Mozilla Firefox add-on that allows users to install scripts that make on-the-fly changes to most HTML-based web pages. Basically, as Greasemonkey scripts are persistent, the changes made to the web pages are executed every time the page is opened, making them effectively permanent for the user running the script.

The original Greasemonkey developer and Google employee Aaron Boodman announced yesterday that Chrome version 4 and later will support at least 80% of the Greasemonkey scripts out there natively. That is, without any additional tweaking necessary; unlike many of the hacks that existed up until now.

This now gives those who contemplate switching to Google's Chrome a serious re-consider. For me personally, not having Greasemonkey alone was the reason behind my lack of interest in Chrome. Potentially, this now makes available 40,000 plus scripts. Although I've not tried it, I'm under the impression that each of the userscripts one would install is treated like an extension in and of itself.

Have you made the switch to Google's Chrome? If not, will the availability of Greasemonkey scripts lure you in now? Let us know in the comments.  ▣

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Safeguard Schools, Religious Institutions and Your Family Online

There have been a few things that have changed since I last wrote about how to protect your computer and your family. Of course, the applications of this are many. For example, I highly recommend a proactive approach to protect schools, religious institutions, your family (and the family of those you know and care about), etc. The options are very easy and anyone can do one, a combination or all of them.

At the network level, where everyone on your network will be affected (that's a good thing for most), the previously mentioned OpenDNS route is a very good one. Since I've mentioned it, however, I've learned that OpenDNS was responsible for a minimum of 15% impact on my network performance. While the protection is nice, their DNS (a definition was also covered in last year's article) was slowing down all systems using it. This may have just been the case for me, but I did some thorough testing only to be surprised that it was OpenDNS behind my slower connection (both inbound and out). Despite the negative-discovery, I still think that OpenDNS is amongst the top & best option, which allows for maximum customization for the entire network. With the categories they offer, and the option to add domain names via their web interface, OpenDNS makes it easy to protect all internet-accessing machines within your network.

Almost eight months after writing the April article Google offered its own public (and free) DNS. The announcement this last December opened up a whole new option for all of us to use. Despite the lack of customization, Google's Public DNS still offers a lot of security benefits. Albeit, none of those benefits will offer protection against nudity, gambling, pornography, etc. Judging from personal experience, however, I'm very impressed with the speed of the DNS. I'm unable to detect any slowness or impact on my internet connection. On the contrary, it was faster than my ISP's own DNS (is that even possible?). With that speed, and with other options available to protect my network & individual machines from the profane side of the net, Google's public DNS was the right option for; and may be one for you too.

I still highly recommend using a customized hosts file in your Windows machine to help protect against many of the profane, inappropriate and plain-ol' annoying sites. The hosts file solution is awesome and adds a layer of protection that's unsurpassed by any other. Combining that with a good (and fast) DNS and you're well on your way to isolating & omitting more than 90% of the Internet's inappropriate content. To learn more about the hosts, I strongly recommend that you read last year's article. I went to great lengths to explain it and provide you the resources needed to make it happen without much work. Having a site that keeps an eye on such unwanted web addresses and updating a hosts file alone is worth the change to make in your hosts file. In other words, you'll never have to know what bad sites to block, what ad sites to block, what sites known for spyware, malware and the like to block, etc.

After standardizing on Firefox within my household, and within organizations I've helped, it was easy for me implement a few extensions to also help with protecting our children, congregation, company, etc. from all the inappropriate & dangerous content out there. Many swear by NoScript, which's an extension/add-on for Firefox that gives you the power to specify the sites you trust and only those sites will be allowed to run active content like JavaScript, Java (usually in applets) and other executable code. The add-on thus protects you from cross-site scripting and click-jacking attacks. Personally, I rely heavily on Greasemonkey. I always run Greasemonkey and adding to it is a breeze. In particular, I highly recommend the "Block XXX sites" script. Next in line is the "Profanity Filter." Hands down, it's the best one out there. For religious institutions and schools, these two are simply a must. If you're looking to have more control on substitution options for certain vulgarities, then I recommend Jmaxxz's Vulgar Word Blocker.

Many kids are online; and if you're responsible for protecting them directly or indirectly in an IT capacity, then I also recommend that you consider "5 terrific Web-Browsers to safeguard Kid’s internet activities."

My advice is based on my personal set up. It's also the one I recommend professionally or for any volunteer work I do. After I switched away from OpenDNS, it is now Google's Public DNS, a customized hosts file and Greasemonkey scripts after standardizing on Firefox. Did I mention that it was all FREE? And so easy to set up. You shouldn't have any questions, but if you did, I'm more than happy to help.

What's left? You still need a good anti-virus application. And there are several good ones out there that are 100% free and rival many of their commercial alternatives.

If you're responsible for the IT of a company, a religious organization, a school or a bunch of children, then I urge you to consider the above solutions. You do not want a child to come across some horrific images and/or content that many adults detest.  ▣

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Better Browsing (On The iPhone Too) With Bookmarklets

Today's unusually late post comes after a lot of tossing and turning over how to approach this vast topic: Bookmarklets.

I've briefly talked about bookmarklets on a few posts right here on ahmadism.com. Given that this topic is one of personal interest & passion, I literally wanted to cover it in its entirety. This included a brief description of what bookmarklets are, how they work, a quick tutorial on creating one, how they could improve the life of everyday browsers, how to significantly enhance one's iPhone, etc. The topic grew out of hand so quickly that I even started to record a video screencast that was going to illustrate the whole thing and talk about it; in hopes of saving a lengthy article.

I quickly realized, albeit at this very late hour, that I need to break this up into several topics; a series, if you will.

Let me get right to it. Bookmarklets are little pieces of JavaScript code that can be saved as ordinary bookmarks (or "favorite" for you IE folks) in your web browser.

Written in Javascript, they are designed to work with just about any browser, though there are a few browser-specific bookmarklets. Bookmarklets help you do whatever you do on the web with your Internet browser – and do it better. There are life-saving bookmarklets for web development and web page design. There are bookmarklets for tagging, posting, dictionaries, searching, references, Wikipedia, writing programming code, and tons more tasks you do with your browser.

Bookmarklets are a nice alternative to browser add-ons and toolbars, which limit (if not down-right eliminate) viruses and bugs that come from such add-ons. Bookmarklets, since they are JavaScript calls, are relatively easy to figure out and change to fit your own need. There are a lot of bookmarklets out there, and most should fit your need exactly as they are without you having to change a thing.

So, let's talk a bit about how bookmarklets can help you in your day to day browsing. Here's an example:

Personally, I come across quite a few pages where the links are not, well, links. A URL would be listed as such: http://www.ahmadism.com And as such, is not a clickable link. That's where Linkify comes in.

Simply drag the "Linkify" link above to your browser toolbar. Alternatively to dragging and dropping, you could right-click the link and click "Bookmark This Link" in Firefox (my browser of choice), or "Add to Favorites..." in IE. Of course, IE will present you with some blocks to running them, which's why most serious-net-browsers do not use IE.

In short, bookmarklets allow you to temporarily modify the current page to do something you need. Once you refresh the page, or revisit it, it will be back to the way the web page designer intended it. For a more permanent solution, you basically need JavaScript to run on the specified page all the time --And that's exactly what Greasemonkey is and does.

This particular post is aimed at what are bookmarklets, and not the bookmarklets themselves. With that, it's worth mentioning that bookmarklets run indifferently on all the main browsers such as Internet Explorer (IE), Chrome, Safari, Firefox, etc. That's because most browsers support JavaScript; which by the way is required for bookmarklets to run (it must be enabled). Other benefits from using bookmarklets include:

1. No need to update them if your browser gets an upgrade.
2. No installation required!
3. Very well optimized for all browsers. This mean that they won’t slow any software down.

Best of all, with a browser sync tool like Xmarks, it's easy to have them everywhere you need them --Whether that be on multiple browsers, multiple machines, at a friend's house, at a net cafe, on your phone, etc.

Bookmarklets can interact with other web technologies like AJAX, talk to a PHP page, etc.; but most are creative manipulations of the Document Object Model (DOM). To access a page's title, for example, you need the following call: document.title. To make that pop up in a small window, otherwise known as an alert window, you simply type the following in the browser's URL field (the space where you type the www.something.com):

javascript:void(alert(document.title));

Now you can make things hide, move, pop-up, etc. None of these bookmarklets talk to a server; not typically anyways, but they all interact with the current page you're on.

Over the next few weeks I will go into other bookmarklet topics, examples, etc. So please come back and visit. Upcoming topics include (in no particular order) iPhone enhancing bookmarklets, YouTube bookmarklets, mp3 bookmarklets, web developer bookmarklets, reference bookmarklets, Flickr ones, Blogger ones, Google ones, and much much more. Needless to say, I have the largest collection of bookmarklets I know, and I continually write my own when I can't find one that does what I need.

Be sure to continue this series by visiting next week's post here.

Looking for a specific bookmarklet? Let me know in the comments and I'll see if I can help.   ▣


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Tip Tuesday - Dated Search Results

You've been searching for how to do this one particular thing, and right there on top of the 1st results page you get a match. You might as well have clicked on the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button, you think to yourself. Then you find out that the results are outdated.

Very few use Google's advanced search options, and specify a date range. But what if you don't want to specify a range, and you just want to see when the results were published?

The answer: Just add the following to the end of the URL of your search results:

&as_qdr=y15

But who's going to remember that? And to make matters even more confusing, Google's search URL could change like it has in the past.

Well, you're in luck ... A Greasemonkey script provided by filius, which some sites point out he's Stephen Gore (just trying to give proper credit), can be found at userscripts here. This is an awesome and well-written script.

However, as with all Greasemonkey scripts, this will run all the time. So what if you wanted to run it only when you needed it?

That's exactly how I wanted it too; and so I created the following bookmarklet (aka: favoritelet or favlet, for short): Google - Dated Search Results

Don't know what to do with a bookmarklet? Simply drag that link over to your browswer's toolbar. If you still don't know what I mean, check out this very short video.

The bookmarklet doesn't do any fancy URL checking beyond making sure you're on the google.com domain, it just tacks "&as_qdr=y15" (as mentioned above) onto the end of the current URL. Be sure to run it only on Google's search results page and it will prepend the results with the published date.

Whether this will display the date the "page" was first indexed or when it was edited is a point of contention, so be aware of that when you're searching. Still, it might be worth using.

This simple bookmarklet works on both of Google's search results:
New search is http://www.google.com/#hl=en&q=ahmadism&btnG=Google+Search.
Old search was http://www.google.com/search?q=ahmadism

Happy searching.   ▣

Tip Tuesday - What Is Greasemonkey?

Allow me to dive right into the topic as there is a lot to cover on this one.

The Greasemonkey Firefox extension associates a bit of JavaScript with specific web pages and runs it every time you visit, dynamically changing the appearance and/or functionality of those pages. On the geeky side, Greasemonkey basically allows users to install JavaScript that make on-the-fly changes to most HTML-based web pages. Wikipedia says:

As Greasemonkey scripts are persistent, the changes made to the web pages are executed every time the page is opened, making them effectively permanent for the user running the script.

These scripts do not actually change the web site itself, but it changes the way Firefox interacts with the HTML on a web page to make it act in a way that is more user-friendly and/or befitting of one's needs. This change only occurs in your Firefox browser and only for the current session. It does not change any coding on the server side or to the web site itself. It simply changes how Firefox reads the code on the page and redisplays it to you with the aesthetic and functionality based on the directions/code of the script(s) you have installed. Every time you visit the web site, the script changes the page for you without you noticing it. There is no delay in the changes visible to the naked eye, usually.

Greasemonkey Hacks, a book by Mark Pilgrim, says:

Greasemonkey allows you to write scripts that alter the web pages you visit. You can use it to make a website more readable or more usable. You can fix bugs that the site owner can't be bothered to fix themselves. You can alter pages so they work better with assistive technologies that speak to a web page aloud or convert it to Braille.

Some scripts allow you to auto-fill forms. You can even automatically retrieve data from other sites to make two sites act as one ... very close to mashups.

By itself, Greasemonkey does none of these things. In fact, after you install it, you won't notice any change at all, until you start installing what are called "user scripts."

The "Swiss Army Knife" of Firefox extensions may seem like it requires a bit of rampup to get going, but it does not. You simply install those "user scripts" without as much as restarting your browser. There are literally thousands already written for you. To install these user scripts, first you must install the Greasemonkey Firefox extension. Then head out to Userscripts.org and search for a web site or page you'd like to see optimized and in what manner and you're sure to find something.

Let's say you want to make Gmail work better with filters & labels. To be specific, you really like folders and you wished that Gmail could work with folders instead. I'd head to Userscripts.org and search for "Gmail folders." The more you search, the more you'll see how things are listed. Side note: I personally made my gmail combine filter-use with labels and displays them as folders. It has truly changed how I use Gmail (see the screen shot on the side). If you like, I'd be more than happy to share with you how I've done that. Let me know in the comments, or shoot me an email to the ahmadism [squigly thing] gmail [dot] com

Greasemonkey allows you to stipulate what pages (and sub pages/directories) to run the script of your choice on. And the reverse is also true. Greasemonkey allows to exclude certain sites/pages as well.

Some of you know me well enough to know that I'm a bookmarklet collecting fool. I don't want to spend too much time on what bookmarklets are, just know that they are JavaScript code that you run ad-hoc on whatever page you deem fit. To make them accessible to you, you put bookmarklets as links in your bookmarks/favorites. Usually right on your toolbar as shown in the image on the side. Whereas Greasemonkey scripts run on specified URLs, bookmarklets are on-demand. I use mine in place of extensions, especially toolbar extensions, whenever possible. This helps keep Firefox running smooth without any risk of bugs, viruses, etc. that come by way of extensions. Finally, bookmarklets run on Google Chrome (I'm a Firefox fan/user, personally) and on the iPhone (not an owner of one) without any glitches, apps, etc.

Among the bookmarklets that I use, which also exist as a Greasemonkey script, is "linkify."
Linkify basically converts text links to clickable hyperlinks. It turns plain text links into real clikable links. Attempts to catch links like google.com. I don't want that running on all pages, or a set of pages. Instead, I want to run it whenever I want to run it. And I have a version that opens up the links in a new tab, converts plain text email addresses, as well, etc.

Some of the must-have Greasemonkey scripts, which make sites work sooo much better and I use include:

• Ahmadism.com's own Launch in New Tab (LiNT): Launches, all included sites YOU specify, in a new window/tab. A simple but very useful script especially for job boards. Simply specify the URL's you want this to apply to.
• Google Account Multi-Login: Replaces "Sign Out" link on Google pages with a select box of accounts. This is a must-have for all who have more than one Gmail account.
• YouTube HQ 720p Ultimate: This script successfully seeks out the HIGHEST available quality for YouTube, and loads it on the page without refreshing.
• GMailTo: Opens mailto: hyperlinks in gmail compose. I have mine to exclude https://*.yahoo.com
• Check Range: Lets you check or uncheck a range of checkboxes by clicking the first checkbox and then Shift+clicking the last checkbox.
• Folders4Gmail: Which does what I mentioned earlier and allows you to organize your labels in a folder-like hierarchy.

If you have not given Greasemonkey a chance and use Firefox, now is the time to jump on board. Greasemonkey will give you a new perspective on the Internet and your favorite web sites by allowing you to take control of what they do and how it feels.

So let's hear it, fellow Greasemonkey users: What user scripts do YOU have installed? Let us all know in the comments.