Twitter refreshed their web interface in September, but the only new feature they added in the release was an enhanced profile customizer. The customizer is great for changing your color scheme and background image, but none of the features the community has been pleading for were addressed. Most power users use some sort of desktop app, but with the power of Firefox and five Greasemonkey scripts, the Twitter web interface can become just as powerful as almost any app.

Greasemonkey is a Firefox extension that allows users to install a variety of scripts into their browser ranging from changing the way a page is displayed to adding content from other sites to a page. The scripts are often written in JavaScript and a large collection of Twitter specific scripts are available for download.

Rather than you having to download and try out each script, here are a few of our favorite (most useful) scripts. Give them a try and you may just find yourself making Twitter.com your preferred client again.

1. Twitter Search Box (link) – adds Twitter Search to the right sidebar
2. Twitter Hashtags (link) – turns hashtags into clickable links that direct to the hashtag page at hashtags.org
3. Scarecrow (link) – stops Magpie posts from showing up on any Twitter page. Warning: this eliminates all posts with the hashtag #magpie even if it isn’t a true Magpie ad
4. Twitter Sidebar Replies (link) – on any user’s page, it adds the most recent replies to them to the right sidebar of their Twitter page
5. Shadow (link) – follow anyone on Twitter without having to actually “follow” them. With this script Rafe Needleman can start following Britney Spears again without having her show up in his following list. Also, this script is extra shady because it allows you to follow people who have blocked you (unless their profile is private)

Greasemonkey is a powerful tool and with these scripts it brings a new level of usefulness to Twitter’s web interface. Install the extension, start exploring the new possibilities and let us know what scripts you find to be the most useful.

For a list of additional scripts to play around with check out the Twitter Fan Wiki at http://twitter.pbwiki.com/Greasemonkey.