We all have webapps and services that we love, but that doesn't make them perfect. If you want to do more with Gmail, remove annoying parts of Facebook, connect two webapps you love, automate tedious actions, and more, you can do all this with a few clever scripts, extensions, and services. Here are our 10 favorites.

10. Fix Your Biggest YouTube Annoyances

YouTube is a great place to find tons of video content, but it's far from perfect. You may be annoyed by automatic video plays, the player choosing the wrong resolution, the ugliness of the comments, and the multitude of intrusive ads. The easiest way to fix these problems is with a Chrome extension called YouTube Options, but users of other browsers can implement a few userscripts to get the same clever fixes as well.

9. Add a Custom Style with a Userstyle Sheet

Userstyles are simply CSS stylesheets used to override the existing code on a web site. This is great because you can use them to customize the look of just about any site. You can add custom backgrounds and images to Facebook, make Google Reader look like a desktop app, give YouTube a darker interface for more vibrant viewing, and even add a Super Mario Bros. theme to Tumblr. For help on finding great userstyles and learning how to implement them, check out our complete guide.

8. Improve Google Reader with Extensions and Userscripts

Google Reader is a great webapp on its own, but you can supercharge its capabilities and change its look with the help of some extensions and/or userscripts. You can overhaul the interface any way you want, get notifications on updated feeds, remove junk without removing any feeds, and easily subscribe to new feeds directly from your toolbar. That's just a sample. For a comprehensive look at everything you can do to supercharge Google Reader, check out our guide.

7. Manage Your Social Media Accounts Better with FellowUp

Between your Google apps and Facebook and LinkedIn, you've probably racked up quite a few contacts and calendar events. It can be hard to manage them all when they're in different places, and that's assuming you can even remember who your contacts are in the first place. FellowUp is a web and mobile app that helps you keep track of it all from pretty much anywhere. It keeps you abreast of what's on tap for the day, helps remind you of who all your contacts are in case you forget, and makes it easy to find who or what you're looking for. It's a really helpful tool if you're overwhelmed by your social media accounts. Read more about it here or just check it out.

6. Create Site-Specific Browsers (or Use a Webapp-Centric Browser)

Webapps are great, but desktop versions are often more reliable. You also may prefer a desktop app to always have a persistent window that contains the webapp you want to use. Site-Specific Browsers, or SSBs, can do this for you. OS X has an excellent option called Fluid. Windows users should check out Bubbles (although the site appears to be down at the moment) or Site Specific Browser (which is currently available). These SSBs often add additional features to your web apps. For example, Fluid adds Growl support and makes it very easy to add userscripts and styles.

Alternatively, OS X users can check out Robin, which is an app that collects your favorite apps into one interface. You can switch between them with big app tabs and the interface keeps things super simple.

5. Keep Your Webapps In Sync With Your Desktop Using Social Folders

Social Folders is a handy web service that keeps your webapps in sync with your desktop. You can kind of think of it like Dropbox for Facebook, Flickr, Google Docs, SoundCloud, YouTube, Twitter, and more. You just drop want you want to upload to that web service into its respective folder and Social Folders takes care of the rest. If you add something to any of your synchronized webapps via the web (or anywhere else), Social Folders will download it to your computer(s). It's not only a great way to upload files to various services, but it provides a backup on your computer as well. The service is free for 1,000 file transfers per month, and you can gain more free transfers by referring friends to the service. Alternatively, you can just get unlimited transfers by paying $2 per month or $10 per year. Check it out here.

4. Clean Up and Improve Gmail with Gmelius and Minimalist for Everything

Google's latest design upgrades definitely look nice, but they're not necessarily is utilitarian, or even as simple, as they could be. You can't fit as much on screen as you once could and, as always, ads get in the way. The solution comes in two forms: Gmelius and Minimalist for Everything. Both are extensions that boost Gmail's capabilities, hide ads, and remove interface elements you don't want cluttering up your window. Gmelius works cross-browser—for Chrome, Firefox, and Opera—but Minimalist for everything is Chrome-only.

3. Power Up Your Dropbox or Google Drive with Wappwolf

Your Dropbox and Google Drive pretty much just sit there and sync stuff for you. That's awesome on its own, but there is so much more you can do with a cool webapp called Wappwolf. It can watch any folder in your GDrive/Dropbox and perform an action when it finds what it's looking for. It can convert books and send them to your Kindle, downsize images and upload them to your favorite image sharing sites, batch-convert audio files to various formats, and even sign PDF documents. Sign up at Wappwolf.com and read our guide to get started.

2. Make Facebook Infinitely Better with One Browser Extension

Nowadays, Facebook can't make an update without several groups and petitions cropping up, asking them to change things back to the old ways. Whether you find these complaints legitimate or not, you don't have to beg to make Facebook bend to your desires. All you need is Social Fixer, a browser extension and userscript that works with pretty much any web browser you've got. It'll help you get rid of annoying interface elements you don't like, make your second inbox bigger (you probably didn't even know you had two), filter out posts you don't want to see without unfriending anybody, and a whole lot more. To get started, check out our complete guide.

1. Supercharge Almost Any Webapp With ifttt

If This Then That, or ifttt for short, is an incredible service that can create new functionality from your webapps and even connect them together. For example, you can automatically take articles starred in Google Reader and send them to your Instapaper account, download photos you were tagged in on Facebook to your Dropbox, or even automate your job search. These are just a few of many great examples. We've detailed many more here, and you can sign up for the service for free by visiting ifttt.com.

Chrome: Most of you use RSS regularly, but also note it's pretty annoying to stumble on an RSS feed that truncates the article for the sole purpose of getting you to click the link and leave your RSS reader. We feel your pain, and Google Reader Inline is a Chrome Extension that lets you read the full article without leaving Google Reader to do it.

Google Reader Inline does what its name implies: it opens the full article in a pop-over viewer right there in Google Reader, so you can read the full text without opening a new tab or leaving your daily reading routine. It's a win-win: you get to read the full article without having to open it in a new tab, even if it requires one more click, and the site owner with the truncated feed gets your visit. Some of you will say it's not really a hassle to open an article in a new tab and read it that way, but if you like quickly scrolling through your feeds and don't want to leave them just to see what was said "after the jump," Google Reader Inline saves the day.

What do you think? Worth trying out, or do you have a different method for dealing with truncated feeds? Let us know in the comments below.

Google Reader Inline | Chrome Web Store

Despite the increase in the variety of ways you can consume media and learn about news, Google Reader is still the default news reader for many. While you can always find a good desktop RSS reader to suit your needs, many people still prefer the plain old web experience. Just because you prefer the webapp doesn't mean you can't overhaul the look and feel though, so let's take a look at some of the best extensions, styles, and tweaks you can use to make the experience better.

Late last year you voted Google Reader as your favorite RSS newsreader and it's clear you're still big fans. While Google Reader recently had a big interface overhaul, it's still not perfect for everyone. Let's take a look at some of the ways you can customize Google Reader to look, act, and alert you any way you want.

Overhaul the Visual Interface Any Way You Like It

If you hit up Google Reader every day then chances are you're a little sick of its design. It works, but it still doesn't have as much stuff as people like (or it has too much, depending on who you ask). Thankfully, you can tweak the interface in countless ways, here are some of our favorites.

Minimize the Interface to a Bare Bones News Reader

If you use Google Reader as an actual newsreader and not to just quickly glance through headlines then you're likely bothered by the cluttered interface. We've seen quite a few extensions that minimize the interface, but our favorite is the Stylish (Firefox or Chrome) userscript Google Reader Minimal Reader Expanded. Despite its not-minimal name, the script cuts out all the junk in your feeds so you're offered a clean reading experience that looks more like Instapaper or Readability than Google Reader. Alternately, if you're on Chrome, Google Reader Readable does the same thing with one simple extension.

Give the Google Reader Webapp a Desktop Feel

Perhaps a skin isn't enough for you and you'd prefer a more desktop like experience. One of the best looking Mac newsreaders, Reeder has recieved a couple unoffical ports to browsers. The Pure Reader Stylish style for Firefox and Chrome and Reeder for Chrome do a good job of emulating the desktop version of Reeder inside your browser window.

If you don't mind leaving the main Google Reader site, but still want a webapp, Feedly is one of your best bets. It offers up tons of options for how you view your Google Reader feed, including the simple list-based UI you're used to as well as a more stylish, magazine-style layout. Alternately, if you're looking for a more visual way to browse feeds, FeedSquares for Chrome might be more up your alley.

Customize Google Reader Any Way You Want

If the above pre-defined styles aren't your thing, Reader Plus for Chrome allows you to edit, change, and alter pretty much everything you could imagine. It's not the most intuitive interface in the world, but if you want to tinker with your own look and feel for Google Reader then Reader Plus is one of the easier tools to use. For Firefox and Chrome users looking for even more depth, the above mentioned Stylish allows you to build your own themes any way you like, but it takes a little more know-how.

Get More Out of Your Feeds with These Extensions and Tweaks

Once you've picked out your favorite style and have a Google Reader skin you're happy with you still have plenty more options for tinkering with the basic functionality. Whether it's setting up notifications or making it easier to subscribe to feeds, here are a few we find really useful.

Get Notifications on Updated Feeds

If you're constantly checking and then rechecking your RSS feeds for updates and wasting precious time, you might be better off setting up a simple notification system for when new feeds trickle in. Both Google Reader Notifier for Chrome and Super Google Reader Greasemonkey Script for Firefox and Super Google Reader for Chrome both help display full feeds directly in Google Reader so you can read a full blog post or article without clicking away. Neither works all the time, but they help deliver the full text on most websites.

When those extensions fail to pull a full feed, Google Reader Inline for Chrome is an extension that will load up the full article inline directly in Chrome. We found a few outdated solutions for Firefox, but nothing that was working in the current version, so if you know of an extension with a similar purpose, sound off in the comments.

Subscribe to Feeds Directly From Your Toolbar

If you're still building your RSS feeds and finding a lot of new sites all the time then you know it takes a couple steps to copy and paste the link into Google Reader. Firefox users don't have this problem since adding a RSS feed is built into Firefox directly, but if you're on Chrome and you'd prefer a slightly quickly approach, RSS Subscription Extension offers a simple two click solution for adding whatever site you're currently on to your Google Reader subscriptions.

Cut the Junk Out of Your Feeds but Keep Your Favorite Sites

Sometimes your favorite blogs cover stuff you don't care about, but that doesn't mean you want to ditch them from your reader completely. If you'd prefer to filter out the stuff you don't like, the Google Reader Filter Greasemonkey script and Reader Filter for Chrome allow you to filter out any posts in your feed that deal with a specific keyword. If you want to customize it even more and block out keywords in specific feeds or folders, commenter yuriys points to the userscript Google Reader Filter Per Feed/Folder as a handy solution. This can come in incredibly handy when you've reached the tipping point on Apple rumors, product leaks, or if you're just not that interested in one operating system or another.

With a little elbow grease you can turn the vanilla Google Reader into a powerful webapp that rivals its desktop kin. If nothing else, it adds a little personality to your newsreader experience so you feel a bit more at home. If you're looking for a good RSS reader for your desktop or smartphone, be sure to hit up the App Directory for our picks. Of course, countless other extensions and themes exist, so go ahead and share some of your favorites in the comments.

We've covered a lot of cool RSS tricks, readers, and apps over the years, but it seems like people have been shying away from getting their news through an RSS feed and have started relying more on social networks. With that, we're wondering: Do you still use RSS?

Of course, we have no definitive proof that RSS is on the decline other than through a few casual conversations, but it seems like people are getting their news in different ways. We want to hear from you:

Share more details about how you keep up with news in the comments.