The biggest feature in Google Chrome 4 was without doubt the built in extension engine that allowed Chrome users to easily install and use extensions. What the developers forgot to mention in the release announcement was that Greasemonkey userscript support was also added to the web browser.
Userscripts are small scripts that change elements on the website. They can remove elements, e.g. backgrounds or advertisement and add new features like links or information to those pages.
Google Chrome did support userscripts in earlier version but the new implementation in Google Chrome 4 makes it much easier to install and work with those scripts.
Userscripts can be installed directly from within the web browser. All it takes is one click on the install button over at the Userscripts repository to display the installation overlay that is also displayed when installing Google Chrome extensions.
Installed userscripts are listed in the extensions manager from where they can be uninstalled or disabled. Userscripts are actually converted into extensions on the fly in the web browser which is the reason they are listed in the extensions manager.
The developers should consider adding a filter to the manager for a better overview especially for users with dozens of userscripts and extensions installed.
Not every userscript is supported by this version of Google Chrome which can be attributed to differences between Chrome and Firefox. According to the blog post announcing the native Greasemonkey support about 15% to 25% of the scripts are currently not working in the Chrome browser.
Many userscripts work fine when installed in the Google browser while others can be installed but do not work properly due to the differences in architecture. An option to verify that a script will work in Google Chrome would be handy.
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