Chrome Adds Support for Over 40,000 Greasemonkey Scripts

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.