One of Mozilla Firefox's bigger advantages over Google Chrome has just been wiped away and, dare we say, Google Chrome has actually one-upped its rival in terms of overall usability and ease-of-installation. We're referring, of course, to Greasemonkey. You might have heard this name echoed across tech and tweak sites far and wide. As well you should have--the functionality you can achieve by this upgrade to your surfing experience is simply unsurpassed in its depth or scope by any conventional add-on or extension.

It's quite simple, really. You install Greasemonkey to gain access to a gallery of add-ons that benefit your browsing experience just as much as your favorite official "add-ons," if not more. By add-ons, we mean "scripts." In its conventional format, Greasemonkey is a browser add-on that grants you the ability to automatically integrate new Javascript-based modifications to a site whenever you load up the page. You don't have to design these modifications yourself--a huge gallery of scripts (more than 40,000!) have already been written for a wide swath of functions and locations. Consider Greasemonkey scripts to be analogous to extensions for Greasemonkey--itself an extension for your main browser.

Or, at least, for most browsers--Google Chrome doesn't force you to install a separate extension in order to access this huge body of customized tweaks and modifications. You can thank Aaron Boodman for that. He created Greasemonkey back in 2004 and, as luck might have it, now works at Google as a software engineer. The whole point of that short story is to give a little bit of background for Chrome's interpretation of Greasemonkey scripts. It's rather ingenious, really. Chrome automatically converts these hunks of Javascript into browser-suppoted extensions, which gives you the ability to install, uninstall, and configure your Greasemonkey scripts just as easily as you would a normal extension. You don't need a separate add-on, nor do you even need to restart your browser to fiddle around with all the scripts you want.

And by "all the scripts you want," we mean, "most of the scripts you want." Not all Greasemonkey scripts work perfectly in Google Chrome. The running estimation is that roughly 20 percent of what's out there is currently broken for Google's browser. That's not great news for a person who's easily frustrated by failure. However, here's where Maximum PC comes into the picture. We've run through a large swath of awesome Google Greasemonkey scripts to achieve two key goals: to see what works and to see which scripts, of the 40,000+ available, are awesome tweaks for your browser. That said, here's a list of 11 excellent Greasemonkey scripts that you should put at the top of your must-have list, depending on your browsing preferences:

Inline Google Player

This one's a Lifehacker original and, if you find yourself often searching for new jams on the Web, a complete lifesaver. The premise is simple. Whenever the script detects a link to an MP3 file on a page, it'll throw a little "Play" link after the actual hyperlink. Click on "Play," and a small Flash-based streaming player will appear. Preview your tune. Decide if you like it. Rock out.

Download it here!

Yays! (Yet Another YouTube Script)

We, like most people, enjoy watching videos on Youtube. But what we don't enjoy is waiting for these videos to buffer, and especially when the playback catches up to the end of said buffering. When we want to watch cats chasing each other around, we want it in its full, uninterrupted glory. The Yays script makes this possible... and more! You can now toggle whether you want Youtube videos to autoplay or not, and you can also select a default quality setting for said videos--no more paused playback or 360p videos when you can instead be watching a full, uninterrupted, 1080p stream.

Download it here!

Remove Facebook Ads

Annoying advertisements, especially those related to Mob-based Facebook games or hints of things to come (are YOU getting married! Buy a RING TODAY!), are often a source of laughter--and complaints--on good ol' Facebook. Install this script and you'll never be prompted to "CHECK OUT THIS NEW ENERGY DRINK" or "HEY ARE YOU PREGNANT" ever again.

Download it here!

Greased Lightbox

If you find yourself often searching for images on the 'net, then this script should increase the awesomeness of your conventional experience to a great degree. Instead of jumping to normal HTML pages when you click on picture links--like on Flickr, for example), Greased Lightbox slaps these images into, well, a lightbox. The background of the page you're viewing fades down and the image you're looking at appears in the center of your screen. You can then use keyboard commands to scroll through subsequent images and increase or decrease the size of the picture you're viewing.

Download it here!

Secure Connections on Sites

This one's simple -- when you hit up a particular site on this script's list (like Amazon, Facebook, or Paypal), the script will automatically force your browser to use the more secure https:// version of the page.

Download it here!

BugMeNot

Little is more annoying than when you've gotten yourself all emotionally invested to read an article online only to find that the site hosting said article won't let you through an imposed gateway without registering for a free account. Grumble. BugMeNot adds a little menu to the login pages of sites like this, allowing you to pull up a login and password from BugMeNot's archives instead of having to submit your own info.

Download it here!

LookItUp

What the heck is that? It's a fair question to ask yourself when you stumble across a word or phrase you simply don't recognize. This occurrence might normally result in a trip to an online dictionary or Wikipedia, which would require you to open up a new tab in your browser, go back to the original tab, copy the word, go to the new tab, load up the appropriate site, paste the word, et cetera. Psh to that process, I say. With LookItUp, you can simply highlight words and use keyboard hotkeys to automatically pull up what you've selected in a sidebar of various reference sites.

Download it here!

Virtual Keyboard Interface

Worried that you might be surfing the Web or typing up information on a compromised machine? Virtual Keyboard Interface adds a clickable keyboard below any text field on a Web page. Use your mouse to do your typing, and you'll spare yourself the wrath of an angry keylogger!

Download it here!

Multi-Column View of Google Search Results

Alright, widescreen enthusiasts. If you're sporting a huge monitor, you might be frustrated by the typical wasted space you see in a given Google search result. This script fixes that by allowing you to split Google search results into columns. Change back and forth between one, two, or three columns by using the hotkeys alt+1, alt+2, or alt+3!

Download it here!

Chromium RSS-Feed Detection

Does the site you're browsing have an RSS feed? If the site's layout is poor, good luck finding that little orange icon that represents your ability to subscribe to said site's updates. This script aims to fix that by placing an RSS icon in a little drop-down display in the upper-left corner of Chrome. If you see this, congratulations--you're one step away from accessing the RSS feed you seek!

Download it here!

Helvetwitter

We know how much typical Maximum PC readers love Twitter (read: none), so here's a special one that might just get you back into the service. If you're tired of Twitter's color-filled interface and just want a simpler way to read what's going on with your friends and/or random strangers, grab the Helvetwitter script. It strips everything out of the Twitter interface save for the essentials: names, Tweets, and a box for updates. Instead of a ton of colors, you get three: white, black, and red. This is Twitter minimalism to the max.

Download it here!

David Murphy (@ Acererak) is a technology journalist and former Maximum PC editor. He writes weekly columns about the wide world of open-source as well as weekly roundups of awesome, freebie software. Befriend him on Twitter, especially if you have an awesome app or game you're dying to recommend!

Grown tired of Firefox or simply want to shake things with your browser? If so, you're in luck. Never has there been a better time to consider Google's Chrome browser, now in version 4. Not only does Chrome finally support extensions, but Google has now added native support for Greasmonkey user scripts as well.

"Ever since the beginning of the Chromium project, friends and coworkers have been asking me to add support for user scripts in Google Chrome," Aaron Boodman, a Software Engineer on the Chrome Project, wrote in a blog post. "I'm happy to report that as of the last Google Chrome release, you can install any user script with a single click. So, now you can use emoticons on blogger. Or, you can browse Google Image Search with a fancy lightbox."

No small deal, the addition of Greasemonky gives Chrome users access to over 40,000 scripts on userscripts.org along, Boodman points out. And because each one installs just like an extension, they're easily accessible to all users.

Boodman warns that not all Greasemonkey scripts will work in Chrome right off the bat. The reason? Greasemonkey, if you're not aware, is a Firefox add-on, which means that scripts written up to this point have been aimed at working with Mozilla's browser. Because of this, Boodman expects some 15-25 percent of Greasemonkey scripts won't work in Chrome, but recommends letting the author know if you run into one that appears busted.

"In the meantime, we'll keep working on bugs on our side to bring our implementation closer to Greasemonkey," Boodman added.

Mozilla today unveiled the Jetpack Gallery, a place for developers to showcase their Jetpack add-ons.  Jetpack is a Mozilla Labs project that lets developers build Firefox add-ons using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. While the newly launched gallery – still in beta - gives developers the opportunity to host and promote their Jetpacks, it lets Firefox users browse, install and rate Jetpacks. Installing Jetpacks is quite easy and doesn’t even require a browser restart, save for the very first Jetpack that a user installs. The Jetpack Gallery currently features over 30 add-ons.

Clearly there is nothing that hackers won’t go after in the attempt to monkey about with your computer’s innards. Any opening, no matter how insignificant, needs to be closed before it can be exploited. With this in mind Mozilla today released an update to Firefox, upping its version to 3.5.4, that patches 16 weaknesses, eleven of which are critical.

Hackers were busy on the obvious: the browser engine, JavaScript, and open-source media libraries; as well as the less obvious: the GIF color map parser and the string-to-number converter. In its security advisory, Mozilla reports: “Some of these crashes showed evidence of memory corruption under certain circumstances and we presume that with enough effort at least some of these could be exploited to run arbitrary code.”

Mozilla notes that the JavaScript vulnerabilities can cause browser crashes. Those not able or unwilling to upgrade are recommended to turn JavaScript off.

If you’re still hanging out in Firefox 3 you’ve also got a security patch waiting for you. Version 3.0.15 was released, addressing nine problems, four of which Mozilla tagged as critical.

Image Credit: Mozilla

It sounds like Buzzword Bingo, but a new Mozilla Labs project is applying an open-source, crowd-sourced routine to solve common Web developer issues. The program's called TestSwarm, and I must confess, it's a novel idea for increasing a developer's ability to test out new JavaScript framework on a variety of browsers at once. And the fact that this an open-source project is cooler still: Aspiring testers can load the framework onto their own servers and set up their own test routines at will.

TestSwarm was developed by one of the Mozilla Foundation's JavaScript Tool Developers, John Resig, to deal with the scalability issues that factor into JavaScript code testing. To Resig, the proper testing platform includes at least five different browsers split into 12 total versions per operating system. Although he doesn't go into this length in his example, you should triple that number to factor in the Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 operating environments.

Factor these (now) thirty-six tests against an average of ten test suite iterations--a minimum number of variances that Resig runs in a common jQuery testing environment. That's three hundred and sixty runs for every test you create, more if you're expanding to include OSX and Linux platforms. And did I mention that the best results tend to occur when actual human beings are behind the testing instead of some automated attempt at user interaction? Yeaaaah...

So how did Resig address this grand problem of JavaScript testing scalability? You should know--you're a part of the solution, after all.

To a user, the TestSwarm client just simply works. When you load up the page, the program checks to see what browser you're using and determines whether it's one that is needed for a round of tests. If so, TestSwarm pops up a little window and asks you for your help. If you choose to enter a username and agree to join the fun, you're placed in a holding queue. The TestSwarm client checks for new tests to run on your machine over a set interval of time. If a particular test screws up, a detailed note is sent back to TestSwarm to help developers identify the root cause of the issue. They also receive a giant color-coded chart that shows off the different tests and browser permutations, as well as a visual representation of tests that succeeded, succumbed to minor errors, or completely fell apart.

As a concept, I think TestSwarm is an awesome way to go about using the power of a community to spare one poor person (or a group of people/suckers) from having to run an absurd amount of test iterations in the name of usability. It's analogous to the successful efforts one sees from the many distributed computing applications floating around the Internet. And just as there seems to be an infinite number of [subject]@home distributed programs, I would kill anywhere from three to six people to get a variant of TestSwarm themed for CSS/HTML checks. Instead of looking for faults in JavaScript runs, the client could load up a target Web page into a connected user's browser, find some way to finagle a screenshot or otherwise record the look of the page, and email that back to the original developer. Gone are the hours spent checking the look of a single page across squillions of platforms.

It's an awesome idea--at least, I think so. But what do users get for their contributions to either TestSwarm or the now-aptly named TestMurph?

Such is a question that invariably arises whenever I think of distributed computing applications or, really, even the open-source world in general. The two travel down similar paths in this regard. In distributed computing, you're contributing to an effort larger than yourself for (mostly) bragging rights and respect among your Internet peers. The same holds true for TestSwarm. While I don't necessarily mind helping some dude test out his JavaScript, am I going to open up a tab for the TestSwarm loading area every time I start a version of Firefox? Not really.

Sure, Resig could turn TestSwarm into a downloadable application that launches browser windows during your computer's idle time. But that's a pretty hefty amount of code spread across multiple operating systems, not to mention an increased amount of steps and potential annoyances for users looking to help out. It's a catch-22 if I ever heard one: To increase TestSwarm's popularity and applicability, one has to increase the program's complexity and user interactivity. But unless TestSwarm is exposed to as many permutations of browsers, operating systems, and setups as possible, the entire point of the platform dies away.

To his credit, Resig has opened the doors with an innovative idea for online testing that's sure to be replicated, modified, and distributed in the days to come. In fact, there's been a bit of interest in corporate versions of TestSuite, which bodes well for future TestSwarm spin-offs. I just hope that, for all his work and creativity, the single variable out of Resig's control doesn't ultimately prove to be the suite's undoing. Were there only some equally innovative way to encourage the adoption of the experiment by its chief guinea pigs--that's the real question here.

David Murphy (@ Acererak) is a technology journalist and former Maximum PC editor. He writes weekly columns about the wide world of open-source as well as weekly roundups of awesome, freebie software. Befriend him on Twitter, especially if you have an awesome app or game you're dying to recommend!

Think your browsing history is secure from prying eyes so long as you never leave your PC unattended? Think again. A new site, Web2.0collage.com, digs through your browser's history and then constructs a collage of the web2.0 websites that you've visited.

"Web2.0collage.com mixes art and technology to raise privacy concerns," the site states on its homepage. "Many of us consider our browser history to be private, but that is no longer the case. Any website you visit can determine your browser history by exploiting the very features designed to enhance your Internet experience, a fact many people are not aware of."

Web2.0collage.com works its artistic magic by using JavaScript and them assembling the pieces together in a collage of thumbnails. What you do with it is up to you -- the site links to Zazzle.com to give you some ideas -- but if you're concerned about who's snooping your browser history, you should probably start by clearing your cache.

Mozilla has confirmed the presence of a critical vulnerability in Firefox 3.5. The vulnerability is nestled in the browser’s Just-in-time (JIT) JavaScript compiler – part of the new TraceMonkey engine – and can be used to execute malicious code. Hackers may lure gullible Firefox 3.5 users to websites containing code meant to exploit the flaw. While Mozilla burns the midnight lamp in finding a solution, you can simply disable the JIT. However, it must be noted that disabling the JIT will have an adverse effect on JavaScript performance.

Image Credit: FavBrowser