OilCan may bring Userscripts to the Android browser
Userscripts can be incredibly useful. I've got several (like some of Jay's suggestions) installed in Firefox and can't imagine surfing without them.Got an Android handset and wish you could utilize your favorite scripts in its browser? You might not have to wait much longer. Developer (and Google staff employee) Jeffrey Sharkey is hard at work on OilCan, which promises to do just that.
For now, you'll have to be satisfied with Sharkey's short Vimeo demonstration as OilCan is still in the proof-of-concept stage. It would be a fantastic addition to Android's browser should it be "eventually released" as a binary for the platform as Starkey states on his web site.
Thanks, Todd (@ronin691)!












Comments
4
Subscribe to commentssybgtwyMar 11th 2009 11:37AM
Yeah, he probably has the Cupcake build running too. Tell him to stuff it and just release the multitouch-enabled Cupcake branch already.
tokyomonsterMar 11th 2009 11:48AM
OilCan has been out since december. More info here: http://www.jsharkey.org/blog/2008/12/15/oilcan-greasemonkey-on-steroids-for-android/ including an APK. I've had it on my phone for a while.
awholeianMar 11th 2009 12:49PM
I'm very pleased to see this and can't wait to see how it is used. I think this kind of functionality has a lot of potential for making sites mobile-friendly.
For this to take of it needs to be accessible to everyday users, allowing them to implement scripts through an interface as simple as adding extensions.
ToddMar 11th 2009 4:10PM
I don't want to get all "This battle station is now the ultimate power in the universe" about it...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcL6DwSufMI
...but the power of oilcan is yet to be realized.
Combined with HTML 5, Oilcan scripts have the potential to bring unimaginable amounts of new utility to your Android phone's existing senors - Orders of magnitudes more than any other operating system, desktop or mobile!