Greasemonkey script to kill Google Reader smileys.

Google Reader recently updated to add some annoying visual clutter, prompting me to finally install Greasemonkey to kill the smileys dead. At first I tried to remove the offending elements from the page, but the individual stories get loaded via ajax and it would have taken more than 30 seconds to figure out how to hook into those calls. So, instead, a simple CSS function from Dive Into Greasemonkey:

// ==UserScript==
// @name           KillSmileys
// @namespace      http://jasonfager.com
// @description    Google Reader Smileys suck.
// @include        https://www.google.com/reader/*
// ==/UserScript==
 
function addGlobalStyle(css) {
    var head, style;
    head = document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0];
    if (!head) { return; }
    style = document.createElement('style');
    style.type = 'text/css';
    style.innerHTML = css;
    head.appendChild(style);
}
 
addGlobalStyle('.entry-likers { display: none; }');

Probably overkill for a simple CSS override, but it works. Die, smileys.

Update: This is now available at userscripts.org.

Update 2: This script started breaking, so I checked if there were an official way to handle this yet. There’s now an option to “only show likes from people I follow”, which isn’t really what I want (I actually wouldn’t mind seeing how many people liked a story, it’s just the current implementation is in a horribly annoying location), but has the same effect as this script as long as you aren’t following anyone.

Update 3: Just kidding, it does work (as of 2010/05/17).

Update 4: As it happens, GM already has a GM_addStyle function, as shown in this script. Use it instead. Or use mine, which has been updated to include both http and https.

16 July 2009