14 DAY TRIAL // Google Chrome is still behind other browsers in some aspects. Extensions are especially lacking when compared with Firefox and, judging by their popularity for the Mozilla browser, they could be a huge asset for Chrome. Right now, extension support is a little lacking, but development is moving fast and an upcoming feature that converts user scripts into extensions shows just how easily Chrome can one-up Firefox.
Greasemonkey scripts are very popular with some users, allowing them to easily modify the look and behavior of any website or online app. However, in Firefox, users have to install the Greasemonkey extension before installing any script. This isn't too much of a hassle, but, for most users, it's enough to pass on the opportunity to use the scripts.
Now, Chrome developers have come up with a better implementation by supporting scripts natively. In fact, because these scripts use standard web technologies, Chrome has had support for them for a while now. Users, though, had to manually install them by copying them to Chrome's “scripts” folder.
Aaron Boodman, a Google Chrome developer, explained the problem by saying that, “Lots of users still complain that Chrome does not support Greasemonkey user scripts. Even though we have had the infrastructure in place to handle user scripts for some time now, it has never been clear how the feature would relate to full extensions, and so it has remained incomplete.”
This isn't the case anymore, as the latest Chromium builds, the open source project on which Chrome is based, convert the scripts into native extensions, which can then be managed just like any purpose-built extension, as Google Operating System reports. Google can do this because Chrome extensions are also built using JavaScript, making the conversion almost trivial. Now, all a user has to do is click on the Install script button and confirm the conversion. The feature is already enabled in the latest Chromium build, which means that it should be making its way into the Chrome dev channel releases soon enough. It may be a while until regular users get to enjoy it, as extension support is still in the early stages in the beta channel and, in fact, has been disabled in the latest release.