Hacking your Web browser in 7 easy steps

With ubiquity comes a measure of uniformity -- such is the plight of the modern Web browser.

True, subtle differences in features, flexibility, and performance set some browsers ahead of the pack for particular uses. For the most part, however, sucking down text and rendering HTML, even as the breadth of computing activity in the browser has increased, make most browsing experiences similar, regardless of the frame in which you surf.

Enter the browser hack -- mechanisms by which users can customize their Web experience and tweak the performance of their browser of choice. All the major browsers make such customizations easy, though each employs a different mechanism and uses different labels for each one. For Internet Explorer, they're add-ons; for Opera, widgets; on Chrome, extensions will do the trick, as they will on Safari; Firefox is so open that you can customize your experience via add-ons, extensions, jetpacks, personas, plug-ins, and themes.