Facebook is a tool that some of us use everyday, so we might as well make it look the way we want and add new abilities that we really need, right? FaceTweak is an add-on for Firefox that promises to be the Ultimate Facebook Enhancer.  With it, you can add tons of tweaks to the Facebook interface and engine to get more out of this social networking tool.

Once installed, you will see that you have many more options available for tweaking Facebook to suit your needs.  These are mainly broken down into backend fixes, that make certain Facebook features better and ascetic changes, that make Facebook look different.

Here are the main features FaceTweak has to offer:

• AutoLogin – Auto-login to Facebook (assuming Firefox is set to remember your password)
• Chat Emoticons – Adds smileys to the side of Facebook, clicking on one adds to your message
• Replace Smileys – Replace text smileys as graphics (graphics are original from Facebook.com)
• Fixed Header – Makes the Facebook navigation menu remain ‘fixed’ to the top of the screen
• Fixer – Bigger photos, better albums, download videos, show age, Google Calendar integration, etc.

Here are some of the new social options you have available:

• Auto Confirm Friend Requests – Automatically accept all friend requests
• Autopoke – Automatically pokes back pokers listed on your home page
• Deletes – Bulk delete friends
• Ignore All Requests – Denies all Facebook requests on button click
• Invites – Invites your friends to the app if they’ve already allowed the app access
• Highlight Birthdays – Highlights today’s birthdays on your home page
• Games Quick Invite – Adds quick invite links to various games (needs ‘Invites’ option enabled)
• Poke All – Adds ‘Poke All’ and ‘Poke Selected’ buttons above the pokes on user homepages
• Reply Button – Adds a reply button to comments
• Select All Friends – Select all friends at once instead of having to do so one by one

But wait, that’s not all – you also have tons of media options to play with too:

• inYOf4ceBook – Larger versions of thumbnails and profile pictures on mouse-over
• Video – Adds links to download or convert videos with Zamzar.com, and provides embedded code
• View All Photos – Places link to view all photos of a user
• View Photo in Album – View all photos of a user or an album

And on top of all of this greatness, you get over 20 new skins for Facebook, so you can change how the website looks and feels. You can pick up FaceTweak from the Firefox Add-ons website or learn more about the development of this neat tool at FaceTweak.com.

The theme is based off the look and feel of the web site DeviantART – and pulls off it’s style very well.  One place where some might have problems is the icons are a little jagged – because, they are on DeviantART’s web site too.  As the author says, “Toolbar icons are in the DA .gif emoticon styles, jagged edges on purpose, so please don’t complain about that.”

You can pick up the Devious Green theme for Firefox via the Firefox add-ons site.

Want to remove all the clutter from your favorite site to read, and get right to the text?  TidyRead, an extension for Firefox, removes all the extra stuff from a web page or article that can make reading on the Web difficult at times.

This browser add-on does a simple, yet effective, job of stripping away the extra content from news or blog article pages, leaving you with nicely formatted text to enjoy.  Since the new version is overlaid on top of the old version, switch between the two is very easy.  You also have the options to customize it to suit your own reading style too (white on black, black on white, white on green, ect).

Well worth trying out, if you find some of the content on the Web a little hard on your eyes.  You can pick up TidyRead on the Firefox Add-ons web site.

The Google Web Search – dark blue redesign (vC) user style adds a ‘bit of blue to the otherwise white and bland Google background.  To use this style, you will need to install the Stylish extension for Firefox.  Also as the designer points out on the page,  this style only works for google.com. To make it work for other countries, use a plain text editor to search for “google.com” and replace all occurrences with “google.co.uk” or whatever you use.

Admittedly the author says it is still a work in progress and “in development” but already I have to say it is a unique look if nothing else. The black background for the contacts section kind of bugs me – but the rest is looking pretty slick. You can pick up this user style for Stylish over at UserStyles.org.

Want more Firefox wallpaper? Go check out my selections for the five star Firefox wallpaper.

Want to go back to the Office?

Now I don’t know too many people who say, “I’m such a big fan of Office, I wished all my apps looked like this!” but love it or hate it, the Office look makes for a pretty nice Firefox theme. If your looking for that traditional Microsoft look – but with a little class and style the Office theme for Firefox might be the download you have been looking for.

Stick it up your aero, Vista!

Our next Firefox theme inspired by the Microsoft machine looks like it fell out of Windows Vista. If your a big fan of the way the new Internet Explorer 7 looks then the Vista-areo theme might be up your alley. Sleek blue style with that Microsoft glow.

Crappy, yet classic Microsoft style…

Now this is the style that you know and love. No wait, does anybody really love the classic and familiar look of IE6? No – it couldn’t be.. could it? Well if you do fall in that camp then the Looks Familiar theme for Firefox is a download you might want to do in private. Close the blinds though and make sure nobody sees you using it.

De-MySpacify – Tired of all the user applications on Facebook? Say goodbye to them with this user style. The name of this tweak does speak volumes to some.

Facebook Green – Yes, everything you can expect is delivered here. All the same Facebook goodness except everything has a green tint to it. Great for St Patrick’s Day.

Mini Facebook – This makes the font on the iPhone version of Facebook smaller so that it will work well in an iframe widget on iGoogle.

deviantART Skin for Facebook – deviantART has a pretty slick style – and now you can bring that same style to your Facebook page.

Facebook Always Expand Applications – Get rid of the toggle feature on the applications sidebar, allowing all apps to be visible at all times.

Now you should have no problems with saying you have the most stylish looking Facebook page around.

Feel like you need a more traditional looking Firefox interface, but still don’t want the ugly mess that some Firefox themes out there deliver? For tradition, style and class I direct your attention to the CrystalFox Classic theme.

The easiest way to download new themes is to open up Firefox, then go to Tools then click on Add-ons. When that Window pops up, click on the “Themes” tab and then click on the “Get Themes” link on the bottom. This will load up Mozilla’s official Firefox themes Web site. If you don’t want to go through all of that to visit it – just bookmark this link:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/browse/type:2

Now you are ready to give Firefox a new look. Search around and find a theme that you like and click on the install link you find on the Web page. After that, you should get pop up Window come up and ask you if you’d really like to install this new theme. Go ahead and continue from there – then once it is finished it will ask you to restart Firefox. Click away there too – it is ok to do.

Now to use your new theme, you’ll need to go to Tools then Add-ons then click on the Themes tab. If everything was done correctly you will find the theme you just picked as a selectable option now. Click on it, and then push the button that says “Use Theme”. Now the next time you restart Firefox the default theme will be gone and your new one should have taken it’s place. You can always go back by going through and to the same options again as well.

How can you download themes from other Web sites? This is a little more tricky – but try these steps.

1. Download the theme file to your desktop
2. Open up the Add-ons menu, and then click on the tab for themes
3. Drag and drop the theme file into the theme selection box

If done correctly then you should see the new theme start to install. From here you can just follow along with the “continue” and “ok” buttons and should be good to go.