zeronoise

News Content Filter

A lightweight userscript that filters unwanted news articles based on customizable keywords. Built for Tampermonkey/Greasemonkey browser extensions.

Table of Contents

Overview

ZeroNoise automatically hides news articles containing specific keywords from supported news websites. It works on both static and dynamically loaded content (infinite scroll, AJAX updates), ensuring a cleaner, quieter browsing experience.

Features

Project Structure

zeronoise/
│
├── readme.md              # Documentation (this file)
│
└── zeronoise.js           # Main userscript
    ├── Configuration      # Keywords list (edit here)
    ├── Site Templates     # CSS selectors for each news site (advanced users only)
    └── Core Logic         # Filtering and detection algorithms

Single File Architecture

ZeroNoise consolidates everything into one file for easier management and portability.

Installation

1. Install a Userscript Manager

Choose one for your browser:

2. Install ZeroNoise

  1. Click on the Tampermonkey icon in your browser toolbar
  2. Select “Create a new script”
  3. Delete the default template content
  4. Copy and paste the entire contents of zeronoise.js
  5. Save the script (Ctrl+S or Cmd+S)

3. Verify Installation

  1. Visit a supported news site (e.g., elpais.com, elmundo.es)
  2. Open browser console (F12 → Console tab)
  3. Look for ZeroNoise log messages: 
    [ZeroNoise] Initializing for elpais.com with 37 keywords
[ZeroNoise] Filtered 12 articles on initial load
[ZeroNoise] Watching for new content

Configuration

Adding/Removing Keywords

Open zeronoise.js in the Tampermonkey editor and modify the KEYWORDS array:

const KEYWORDS = [
    'Trump',
    'Mazón',
    // Add your keywords here
    'new keyword',
    'last keyword'
    // Remove any keywords you don't want
];

Tips for Keywords:

Performance Note

ZeroNoise uses explicit @match directives in the script header, which means:

Supported News Sites

ZeroNoise comes pre-configured for these Spanish news sites:

Site Domain Type
ABC abc.es General news
El Mundo elmundo.es General news
El País elpais.com General news
La Vanguardia lavanguardia.com General news
La Razón larazon.es General news
Menéame meneame.net News aggregator
Marca marca.com Sports
AS as.com Sports

Adding a New Site

To add support for a new news website, you need to make two changes:

Step 1: Add @match directive (header)

  1. Open zeronoise.js in Tampermonkey editor
  2. Locate the @match directives at the top (lines 7-22)
  3. Add two new lines for your site:
// @match        *://yournewssite.com/*
// @match        *://*.yournewssite.com/*

The *:// matches both http and https. The second line with *. catches subdomains like www.yournewssite.com.

Step 2: Add site template (configuration)

  1. Scroll down to the SITE_TEMPLATES section
  2. Add a new entry following this structure:
const SITE_TEMPLATES = {
    // ... existing sites ...
    
    'yournewssite.com': {
        // Selector for article containers
        articleSelector: 'article, div.news-item',
        
        // Selector for headlines within articles
        headlineSelector: 'h2, h3, .title',
        
        // Selector for descriptions (optional)
        descriptionSelector: 'p.summary, .description'
    }
};

Finding the Right Selectors

  1. Visit the news site
  2. Open Developer Tools (F12)
  3. Use the Element Inspector (Ctrl+Shift+C)
  4. Click on an article, then find:
    • Article container: The element wrapping the entire article
    • Headline: The link or heading with the article title
    • Description: The summary or excerpt text (if present)

Example walkthrough:

<!-- If the site HTML looks like this: -->
<article class="story">
    <h2 class="story-title">
        <a href="/news/123">Breaking News Title</a>
    </h2>
    <p class="story-summary">This is the article summary...</p>
</article>

<!-- Your template should be: -->
'example.com': {
    articleSelector: 'article.story',
    headlineSelector: 'h2.story-title a',
    descriptionSelector: 'p.story-summary'
}

How It Works

Filtering Process

  1. Page Load: When you visit a news site, ZeroNoise checks if it’s supported
  2. Initial Scan: Finds all articles using the site template selectors
  3. Text Analysis: Extracts headline and description text from each article
  4. Keyword Matching: Checks if text contains any blacklisted keywords
  5. Article Hiding: Sets display: none on matching articles
  6. Continuous Monitoring: Watches for new articles loaded via scroll/AJAX

Matching Algorithm

Article text: "Trump announces new policy on trade"
Normalized:   "Trump announces new policy on trade"
Keyword:      "Trump"
Regex:        (^|\s)Trump(\s|$)
Result:       ✓ MATCH (whole word at start)

Article text: "The trumpet player wins award"
Normalized:   "The trumpet player wins award"
Keyword:      "Trump"
Regex:        (^|\s)Trump(\s|$)
Result:       ✗ NO MATCH (not a whole word)

Performance

Troubleshooting

Articles aren’t being filtered

  1. Check the console (F12) for ZeroNoise messages
    • No messages? Script might not be enabled in Tampermonkey
    • “No template found”? Site isn’t supported yet
  2. Verify selectors for the site
    • Site may have updated their HTML structure
    • Use browser DevTools to find new selectors
  3. Test keywords
    • Try a very common word to see if filtering works
    • Check if keywords match exactly (accounting for punctuation)

Too many articles are hidden

Script slows down the page

Site is supported but not working

The site may have changed their HTML structure. Steps to fix:

  1. Right-click an article → Inspect Element
  2. Find the CSS selectors for:
    • Article container
    • Headline
    • Description
  3. Update the template in SITE_TEMPLATES

Privacy & Security

Contributing

To contribute new site templates:

  1. Test the selectors thoroughly on the target site
  2. Verify they work with dynamic content (scroll, load more)
  3. Use specific selectors to avoid false positives
  4. Document any site-specific quirks

License

This project is open source and available for personal use.

Credits

Version: 1.0
Last Updated: January 2026
Compatibility: All modern browsers with Tampermonkey/Greasemonkey support