March 19, 2005, 6:25 PM ET
Greasemonkey script: Google Suggest
I can't get enough of Greasemonkey, Aaron Boodman's Firefox extension that takes my All Music Guide extension idea to the next level by making it super simple to create and distribute scripts that alter Web pages.
Here's a Greasemonkey script I just cooked up: Google Suggest for Greasemonkey. It makes the dynamic drop-down from Google Suggest a bona fide part of Google, placing it on the Google home page and on search-result pages.
Installation directions for Greasemonkey novices:
- Run Mozilla Firefox.
- Install the Greasemonkey browser extension.
- Restart your browser.
- Go to my script's page, click "Tools | Install User Script...", and say OK to the prompts.
- Go to Google, type in search terms, and watch the suggested search terms appear.
Tech note: The cool thing about the script is that it leverages Google's well-abstracted autocompletion library by dynamically appending it to the page as a <script> element and running a single initialization function. The dynamic <script>-appending technique could be a handy way to do more powerful stuff with Greasemonkey in the future.
UPDATE, April 26: If you don't want to install Greasemonkey, just install this super-simple Firefox extension to get the same functionality:
