

SFGate inserts a link to the story when you copy text on their site. Try it - bkudria
http://www.sfgate.com/

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aichcon
Slightly off-topic, but I tend to highlight text as I read it, and I find it
very annoying how they seem to automatically save the text snippet that you
highlight whenever you highlight it. The progress bar constantly updates and
it's quite distracting.

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CraigBuchek
Good to know that I'm not the only one. And not only do I highlight the text,
but I just keep clicking, highlighting and un-highlighting. So I'm probably
really overloading their servers with the AJAX callbacks.

~~~
wheels
I do the same. The New York Times and similar sites that have actions on
highlight drive me nuts.

~~~
paulgb
Out of curiosity, do you (and this question is open to other compulsive
selectors) tend to play with things physically when you read as well? Eg.
subconsciously pick up a nearby object and start playing with it.

(I do both, and I suspect they tend to go together)

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branden
Yeah I'm the same way. I'm a compulsive highlighter and I often find myself
disassembling pens or mechanical pencils, or folding paper, or removing the
plastic coating inside a bottlecap, or balancing my glasses on the tip of my
finger...The people I spend time with in meetings must wonder if I'm actually
paying attention.

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aidscholar
It's Tynt Tracer: <http://tracer.tynt.com/>

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leviathant
I'm not getting an inserted link. I am, however, using NoScript, and this kind
of nonsense is exactly why I love that add-on.

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CraigBuchek
Note that the front page (which HN links to) does NOT have this feature --
only the article pages.

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jsares
Esquire is doing the same <http://www.esquire.com> :

<!-- Tynt Tracer Beta --> <script type="text/javascript"
src="[http://tcr.tynt.com/javascripts/Tracer.js?user=aTIf7gthSr3P6...](http://tcr.tynt.com/javascripts/Tracer.js?user=aTIf7gthSr3P6Aacn9QLBk&s=70></script>);
<!-- //Tynt Tracer Beta --> </div>

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kailoa
Mac OS X, safari 4, Doesn't work. When I copy parts of a story, all I get are
a couple of blank lines.

~~~
simonista
Mine is working with the same setup, are you sure you don't have any script
blocking activated?

~~~
mcav
edit: You have to use CMD+C to make it work, not the mouse buttons.

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rarestblog
Doesn't work with Chrome either. I copy the text, I get empty lines.

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joebasirico
hmm just tried it with Chrome on my machine and it seemed to be working,
perhaps they've already updated?

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SwellJoe
Firefox on Linux. No link.

~~~
ajross
You also have to copy through the browser's clipboard interface, not the X11
selection. Presumably Javascript is capable of hooking the former, but not the
latter.

~~~
SwellJoe
Ah, select/middle mouse button click is the one true copy/paste. I would never
have occasion to see this happen.

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wwwhncom
Text gets scrambled when you copy. First paragraph works ok, try others.
<http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/yazarlar/11403547.asp?yazarid=69>

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endtime
Doesn't work in Opera 10 b2 on Windows Server 2008...still, neat feature.

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dfranke
Haven't bothered looking through the JS source, but it seems to be something
bound to C-c. It only works for me on Linux when I use the main clipboard;
highlight-and-middle-click doesn't do it.

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spooneybarger
Mac OS X, ff3.5, Doesn't work. I just get the text. No link.

~~~
bkudria
Well, it works for me on FF3.5 and Linux, which is a bit more exotic, so...are
you sure you have JS turned on?

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icco
I don't understand why this functionality angers people. It's like people
don't want their information to have context...

~~~
paulgb
Lots of people compulsively select text when they read, and this feature makes
that distracting.

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eli
That's an argument against the "helpful" little box that pops up when you
select on NYTimes ... but that's not what this is about. This is silent (until
you copy/paste anyway).

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paulgb
I can't speak for other browsers, but in Firefox there are some brief but
distracting UI changes when you select text. It is a side-effect of the click
tracking code they use.

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keltecp11
This is a great idea on their part.

~~~
biohacker42
Much, much, much better then the _Don't you dare link to us!_ strategy.

