This paper presents a general framework for Shanks transformations of sequences of elements in a vector space. It is shown that the Minimal Polynomial Extrapolation (MPE), the Modified Minimal Polynomial Extrapolation (MMPE), the Reduced Rank Extrapolation (RRE), the Vector Epsilon Algorithm (VEA), the Topological Epsilon Algorithm (TEA), and Anderson Acceleration (AA), which are standard general techniques designed for accelerating arbitrary sequences and/or solving nonlinear equations, all fall into this framework. Their properties and their connections with quasi-Newton and Broyden methods are studied. The paper then exploits this framework to compare these methods. In the linear case, it is known that AA and GMRES are 'essentially' equivalent in a certain sense while GMRES and RRE are mathematically equivalent. This paper discusses the connection between AA, the RRE, the MPE, and other methods in the nonlinear case.