Greasemetal: Greasemonkey for Google Chrome

chrome_logo_2.jpgWhile Google only announced its own browser last Tuesday and did not include an API in this first release that would allow developers to create extensions for it, Japanese developer Kazuho Oku found a way to run userscripts on Google Chrome. While its functionality is still limited, Greasemetal is already showing a lot of promise and works exactly as advertised, even though it is not compatible with all Greasemonkey scripts yet.

As of now, Greasemetal is definitely still rough around its edges. It does not have a user interface for managing scripts, for example. Instead, you have to copy them into a directory in your My Documents folder, which is not exactly user-friendly, but works just fine. The developers promise, however, that the next version will include a UI for managing scripts directly in the browser.

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Scripts that make calls specific to Greasemonkey will most likely not work yet. If you are looking for compatible scripts, the developer suggests that you start with scripts that are already compatible with Safari or Opera, which limits your choices, but it's important to keep in mind that this is only a first release.

We tried out the oAutoPagerize script for Safari, and it seemed to work right out of the box. Your mileage with other script may vary.

Note: To run Greasemetal, you have to start the Greasemetal executable and not Chrome itself.

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