I use Chromium’s settings to block JavaScript for some websites (Wrench -> Settings -> Privacy* -> Content Settings… -> JavaScript -> Manage Exceptions), but it doesn’t always work. Google was able to get around it for a while, but I unchecked Allow sites to ask to become default handlers for protocols (recommended) on that same Content Settings… dialog box, and Google behaves now.
Some sites, though, still act like they have JavaScript enabled even though they are explicitly blocked. www.bing.com was one of them, although it acts like JavaScript is blocked at the moment.
Most recently, I blocked it for www.zdnet.com, because the social media sidebar and ZDNet toolbar at the bottom are distracting to me, and seemed to be interfering with scrolling with the mouse wheel. I re-loaded the pages, but one of them still seems to have JavaScript enabled: Linux Foundation proposes to use UEFI to make PCs secure and free | ZDNET . Curiously, a couple others didn’t have those sidebar and toolbar after re-loading. www.zdnet.com does show the bottom toolbar, and I only loaded that page while writing this post, so it isn’t a cache issue.
Are there any other settings that are relevant? Is there something about that page, or other sites, that lets them use JavaScript anyway? Do they have some other way of making JavaScript-like website elements (and are they blockable)? Or does Chromium have a bug so that blocking JavaScript doesn’t always work right?
Neither of the two elements you specifically mentioned require javascript, so blocking it won’t help. On a well designed page turning off javascript shouldn’t eliminate visual content that bothers you, because they should degrade gracefully, not disappear.
While reading more about this, it occurred to me to try changing my setting to block JavaScript from all sites. When I reload, the sidebar and toolbar screen elements don’t show up.
After a little more experimentation, it seems that Chromium is a little buggy. If I have both zdnet.com and also www.zdnet.com blocked, JavaScript gets blocked. With just one or the other, sometimes JavaScript isn’t blocked.
Ok, you’re right that they don’t appear if javascript isn’t enabled. But it’s not graceful for my content to disappear just because a user has disabled a feature. Content completely vanishing when javascript is turned off is the opposite of graceful degradation.
Anyway I don’t have any advice for your problem with Chrome.
They degrade gracefully by not appearing.