Greasemonkey

[Ben Scott]

As kind of a counter-point to the recent discussion on Firefox
security and what JavaScript shouldn't be allowed to do, I'm wondering
what anyone here has to say on Greasemonkey.

http://greasemonkey.mozdev.org/

Greasemonkey is kind of like bookmarklets on steroids.  It lets you
attach arbitrary JavaScript code to any given webpage.  The key here
is that you, the *user*, are scripting things.  An interesting article
on the potential of user-supplied scripting can be found here:

http://www.nivi.com/blog/article/greasemonkey-and-business-models/

That article notes the following things you might do with Greasemonkey
(in order of increasing anarchy):
- Insert links to your local library's card catalog into Amazon
- Insert prices from competitive booksellers into Amazon
- Insert links to pirated material into Amazon (or Netflix)

While I admit I find the idea of user-supplied scripting intriguing,
things such as potential security and stability nightmares are keeping
me away from Greasemonkey for now.  I'm curious  as to what others
think.

-- Ben "Monkey is a funny word" Scott