Greasemonkey is a Firefox extension that allows you to write scripts or use open source scripts that alter the way web pages are displayed and organized. Greasemonkey runs on your browser, so the websites content or code remains unchanged for other users and on the site servers.

( Note:Turnabout is a plugin for Internet Explorer 6.x and above, which mimics the functionality of the Greasemonkey extension for Mozilla Firefox.)

You can use it to make a web site more readable or more usable. You can fix rendering bugs that overworked site owners can't fix themselves.

For family members and friends who are visually or hearing impaired you can alter pages so they work better with new technologies that narrates a web page or even convert it to Braille! You can even automatically retrieve data from other sites to make two sites more interconnected.

Greasemonkeyin itself, does nothing. In fact, after you install it, you won't notice any change in Firefox operation until a user script, ( just a piece of Javascript code) with some additional information that tells Greasemonkey where and when it should be run.

Each user script can target a specific page, a specific site, or a group of sites. A user script can do anything you can do in Javascript, which is quite alot. In fact, it can do even more  because Greasemonkey provides special functions that are only available to user scripts.

But MRFred, I'm not a computer geek! (yet) What about me?

If you not a geeky as some of us "IT Losers" who slave all day writing mind numbing code ( after selling our IT consultant business) , there is Greasemonkey script repository that holds a treasure trove of usefull scripts. Any one with a minmal knowledge of scripting can modify a script!

For example, If you wanted to block certain content , like post from  a specific user on a discussion website, a Greasemonkey script can do that for you. Take this quick test script (that was originally written to block " liberal " trolls on Free Republic! ) we modified off to test Greasemonkey on TYT:

 Just click the Is ( username ) a Troll? Link... then, as if by magic...

You wont see that content for the remainder of you session!  Work continues to refine the script features not fully compatible with ScoopHost ( TYT site engine) but you can see how effective Greasemonkey  can be to improve your web experience!

Here are some of the open source scripts available for popular web sites:

• Myspace (ex: remove all ads from Myspace, remove all flash media from profile pages, …)
• Facebook (change the look of Facebook, remove ads, automatic page refresh every 30-90s, …)
• eBay (add new column displaying total item cost (price+shipping), auto-feedback, …)
• Amazon (disable ads, show prices in different currencies, for each product show prices from other sellers, …)
• Gmail (change appearance, integrate google reader into gmail, ….)
• Youtube, GoogleVideo (ADD video download option, change site theme, … )

If your not excited about changing to Firefox, even IE can enjoy some functionalities offered by Greasemonkeywith an addon called Turnabout. I have no experience with that particular software, but my colleagues and I will check that out at a later date.

 Enjoy, Russ