Tag: Greasemonkey

Find When People Unfriend You On Facebook

and are both great social networks to find friends and communicate with them. However, both these networks do not notify users when someone unfollows or unfriends them.

Facebook Unfriend Alert Notifications

Twitter does have several options to know when users unfollow you, however, what about Facebook? How do you figure out when someone unfriends you on Facebook? Turns out there is a way to do that too.

Unfriend Finder for Facebook is a script which tracks your Facebook friends and then notifies you whenever someone decides to unfriend you on Facebook.

Facebook Unfriend Menu Notification

The script tightly integrates within Facebook and sends you notifications whenever someone removes you from your list. It also alerts you when someone ignores your friend request.

The only problem of the script is that it is browser specific and only works on , , Safari and right now. There is no support for Internet Explorer yet, but you can read up some tips on running Greasemonkey scripts in IE.

This post answered a question our reader asked us, if you want to get your questions answered use the contact us form or post it on our forums.

Download Unfriend Finder

Hide Who To Follow Suggestions On Twitter

recently launched a new feature called "Who to Follow" where they display a list of suggestions of people you should be following on Twitter based on certain algorithms. Though this feature could be handy once in a while, it is always in your face whenever you visit the twitter web interface.

Twitter Who To Follow Suggestions List

Now the problem here is that Twitter does not provide users with an option to disable the suggestions list, and you will have to either use a browser extension or script to disable the "Who to follow" suggestions box on the Twitter web interface.

users have a choice with two different which will allow you to disable/hide or move the "Who To Follow" suggestions box. The Hide Twitter suggestions extension completely removes the suggestions box, whereas the Hide Twitter suggestions PLUS extension will move the box to the bottom of the sidebar so that it is not in your face every time.

If you are a , or Internet Explorer you can use a user style to hide the "Who to Follow" suggestions box in Twitter. To do that, open this link in the browser you are using and choose the options provided to you. If you are using Firefox or Internet Explorer you might need to install additional software or add-ons for your respective browser in order to use the User Style.

That’s it, till Twitter provides a way to disable the "Who To Follow" suggestions, you could use this trick to hide it from your web interface.

Facebook Tries Bullying Greasemonkey Script Fluff Busting Purity

Fluff Busting Purity is a GreaseMonkey script which cleans out the clutter from Facebook. The clutter here, is all that should not be in your current news feed. This includes unnecessary updates like Mafia Wars, Farmville and other game apps and updates from friends.
facebook-purity-fluffy
It also includes the quiz requests you keep receiving from friends just because your name starts with A or B. Generally, before you are allowed to see your score on a quiz, you are requested to forward it to some friends from a list. The list is in alphabetic order and so names with A, B C and alike come up first.

Facebook has grown a hatred for the Fluff Busting Purity script and is determined to bring it down. However, this is not Facebook’s first outrage against this script. It seems like Facebook has a thing for the developer of this script and has been stalking this script from the time it was released with the name of Facebook Purity. In the last allegation, it was accused of infringing Facebook’s trademark. This time though, Facebook simply demands them to shut down. In an attempt to do this, Facebook has deleted the fan page of this script. It has also asked the official website of this script to shut down.

Fluffy Busting Purity demanded a reply on this matter and Facebook replied with,

You will not use our copyrights or trademarks (including Facebook, the Facebook and F logos, FB, Face, Poke, Wall, and 32665), or any confusingly similar marks, without our written permission.

Facebook did not just stop here. It has released a patch to render this script useless but the script creator has devised a method to circumvent this and the script is back on. The script works on almost every browser on every platform out there and is a must have greasemonkey script for Facebook users.

Visit the Facebook Purity homepage as long as it lasts.
[Via: Neowin ]

Hide Google Buzz Update Count and Icon in Gmail

Last night, we told you how to hide the email updates from Google Buzz, however if you want to further sanitize your Gmail account and get rid of the Buzz updates, the best way is to treat it like just another label.

Unfortunately, Gmail does not provide users with an option to hide the Buzz label, or hide the updates in them. If you are one of the annoyed users who do not want to see updates and the cute icon in your Gmail sidebar, the Hide counter is the best way out.

Google Buzz Counter and Icon After Hiding Google Buzz Counter and Icon

Google Buzz Hide Count is a script which will hide the Google Buzz update counter and the Buzz icon in your Gmail account. I tested the script in both Firefox and without issues. So if you have been waiting to get rid of all the buzz, go ahead and download the Google Buzz Count Hide userscript.

Google Chrome Now Supports Greasemonkey Scripts

Some good news for Greasemonkey Fans! Google Chrome 4 now supports userscripts for Greasemonkey, one of the most popular Firefox extension of all times. Aaron Boodman, the man who created Greasemonkey for Firefox in 2004 has added support for Greasemonkey scripts in Google Chrome as well.

Note: The Greasemonkey extension for Google Chrome isn’t stable yet and 15-25 % of userscripts might not work.

greasemonkey-for-google-chrome

Image credit

How to Install Greasemonkey Scripts in Google chrome

Installing the extension is fairly easy because the userscript is converted into an extension in the background. The installation and management is just the same as other Chrome extensions. Following is a begineers guide on installing Greasemonkey scripts in Google chrome:

1. On any userscript page, click the Install” button.

greasemonkey-scripts

2. You will immediately notice that   Google chrome promps you with a security alert at the left corner of the status bar. Click continue.

greasemonkey-in-google-chrome

3. Hit the install button and you are done. Enjoy!

greasemonkey-install

4. To manage or uninstall the script, type chrome://extensions/ in the browser address bar.

Check out the official Google chrome extension gallery and the userscripts site to play around with some useful Greasemonkey scripts. If you had problems installing any script, let us know in the comments.

Filter Items In Google Reader

As you know, Apple has announced its much hyped tablet computer, iPad, and this news has turned almost everyone crazy. This is a totally disgusting situation for some of us (like me) who are not interested in iPad and want to focus on other things. My RSS reader is overloaded with articles covering the Apple tablet, and I hope this situation will remain the same for next few days.

If you are looking for any solution to reduce the RSS load in Google Reader, thankfully here is a Greasemonkey script which filters unwanted content based on keywords. This greasemonkey script, Google Reader Filter, helps you to focus on interesting topics by filtering blogposts with provided keywords.

How to use Google Reader Filter?

Install the userscript from here and reload the Google Reader page. Now, a link named Filter Settingswill appear on top right corner of the page.

Filter items in Google Reader

Click this link and provide keywords and regex to exclude. All RSS items that match the provided keywords will be displayed with dull gray text, so that they don’t attract much of attention.

filter-items-google-reader

Another interesting feature of this script is its ability to highlight entries with selected keywords. It increases the visibility of those items. For example, if you have added a keyword JavaScript to the Highlights column blogposts with the keyword JavaScript will be highlighted with a lime background.

hihjlighted-interested-items

So the next time you face a situation like this, use this userscript to increase your productivity. Google Reader Filter requires the Greasemonkey add-on for Firefox and works wherever Firefox does.

TOCMonkey Adds A Table Of Contents At Any Web page

TOCMonkey is a Greasemonkey script for Firefox users, which creates a table of contents at any web page. This enhances page navigation, and users can find information easily on any website.

How to use TOCMonkey?

To use TOCMonkey, you need to install the Greasemonkey add-on for Firefox first. Once you have this add-on, install TOCMonkey from developer Zoran’s site. After installing TOCMonkey, you can use it on any web page to generate a table of contents. You need to run the User Script command to generate the table of contents.

Run user script command to generate TOC

To execute the command, right click on the monkey icon at status bar and select User Script Commands > TOCMonkey: Add Table Of Contents from the menu (see above screenshot). Now, you will notice a small semi-transparent button at the top-right corner of the page with label TOC.   Hover the mouse over the button and a Wikipedia style table of contents will appear.

TOC at Techie Buzz homepage

Techie Buzz Verdict

Certainly, TOCMonkey increase readability of web pages but it is not the perfect solution yet. It uses heading tags (h1, h2 etc.) to generate TOC, hence it may not perform well on some pages.

Techie Buzz Rating: 2/5

Link: TOCMonkey

Export Facebook Phonebook as CSV File

If you are a user, many of your friends might have phone numbers which they share with you. If you have a large number of friends, copying and pasting them to your external contact list can be quite a pain.

Export Facebook Phonebook is a handy script which will allow you to export all the phone numbers and few other additional details like Name, City, etc from your Facebook account as a CSV file.

The script does not work out of the box as it is for two reasons. First is because Facebook does not use outright URL’s, and instead appends the navigation to the current URL. So in order for this to work, you will have to directly load the phonebook URL. Also the shortcut key assigned for this script Ctrl + Shift + Dis the browser’s bookmark shortcut, which does not get overridden.

Export your Facebook Phonebook as CSV

Step 1: Install the Greasemonkey add-on for Firefox if required, and then install the Export Facebook Phonebook Userscript.

Step 2: Login to Facebook and click on this URL to open the Facebook Phonebook page.

export_facebook_phonebook

Step 3: Go to the Greasemonkey menu and select Export Facebook Phonebookfrom the User Script Commands sub-menu. Clicking on this should update the current page in rapid succession, however, that is the script scraping the phonebook from Facebook.

Step 4: Once all the Phonebook entries have been imported, you will see an option to download the the contents as a CSV file. The full CSV file contains the following details:

Name,City,State,Phone #,Network / Other Info,Contact Result,Notes / Next Step,Who Calls,Month to call back,Year,Who’s List

Techie Buzz Verdict

We have tested and found that this script works without any problems, however, this might not be valid according to Facebook TOS. The export process is pretty fast and you might consider using this if you have a large number of contacts whose phone numbers you want to export and use externally.

There is a slight problem with the URL which is tracked by the script and the problem that the shortcut which does not work, because of which it will not work out of the box in . However, you can modify the line below to change the dto something else as the shortcut key.

GM_registerMenuCommand("Export Facebook Phonebook", doExport, "d", "control shift","f");

Ratings: 2.5/5 (Good)

Gleebox lets you Navigate the Web Using Your Keyboard

If you want to quickly navigate the web using only your keyboard, Gleebox can be helpful. It takes a keyboard centric approach to browsing, allowing you to perform the common mouse actions using your keyboard.

Gleebox is available for Firefox as a Grease monkey script and for Google chrome as an extension. Once the installation is over you can start using it by pressing the Gkey which brings Gleebox into focus. Following is the list of shortcut keys to work with:

  • Tab: moves to the next selected element.
  • Shift + Tab: moves to the previous selected element.
  • Enter: launch a link or execute a command.
  • Shift + Enter: opens a link in a new tab (only in Firefox at the moment. In Chrome, it depends upon the ‘target’ attribute of link)
  • Esc: quit using Gleebox if it is focused. If the Gleebox button isn’t highlighted, simply press Gto quit.

More advanced commands can be found from the user manual page.

The interesting thing about Gleebox is that when you enter any text in a page, it searches for links on the current page that matches with the text. If it finds any links, the link is highlighted and to open it, just press the return key.

In case there is no link matching with the text you have entered, Gleebox goes further and performs a search on Google. Watch the following screen cast to have an idea how Gleebox works:

Techie-Buzz Verdict

Gleebox works great but it may conflict with sites which have their own keyboard shortcuts defined (e.g Gmail, Google reader etc).

Techie-Buzz rating: 3/5 (average)

Disable Google’s Fade-in Animation on Google Homepage

Google recently changed their homepage to a barebone search box. You will see links and other options whenever you fade into the page. However, not many users like this, and would prefer to see the old homepage.

google_search_no_fadein

If you are one of them, here is a script called Disable Google Fade-incan come in handy. Once you install the script, the fade-in effect will be completely disabled.

This Greasemonkey script should work out of the box on with Greasemonkey add-on installed. Most new versions of will allow you to install Greasemonkey scripts as , however, if you are using a older version, read our earlier tutorial on installing Greasmonkey user scripts in Chrome. , and Safari users, please refer to our earlier tutorial on running User scripts in Opera, IE and Safari.

Disable Google Fade-in Script [via Google OS]