Bizarre -- The Word "Copy" on Web Pages is Blacked Out

[cbetter]

I'm on Website A.

I click a link and a new window opens showing promo codes for Website B (retail site newegg.com, if I recall).

When I move my mouse over to the promo codes on Website A's new window (which I think included the word "copy" next to them) they become blacked out.

(This isn't the weird part, just the background.)

I close my browser (IE9).

A day passes.

I visit my bitly.com page, which normally has the word "copy" next to my links, but now these words, too, are blacked out.

It seems I'm running some code that blacks out the word "copy" on any webpage that contains it.

Tried deleting cookies, history, temp files, etc., but it still happens. (It's NOT happening with Firefox).

Tried googling for an answer with no luck.

Any ideas on what might be causing this and how to remove it?

Thank you in advance for any help you can provide.

[penders]

Are the words "copy" on this page blacked out?! On the pages where it is blacked out, what styles have been applied to black it out? (Check Firebug etc.) Is it only when you hover over the word does it black out?!

[cbetter]

No, the words "copy" on this page aren't blacked out. Seems like it happens when the word "copy" is also a link.

Tried using Firebug to view the styles, but as mentioned above, I'm not seeing the behavior with Firefox.

No, when visiting bitly.com, the words/links that say "copy" are already blacked out --even when my mouse pointer is nowhere near them.

[penders]

Bizarre indeed! And this only affects IE9? (BTW, my IE9 is OK at bitly.com) Is Chrome OK?

Have you tried clearing your browser cache?

Is everything else about the page normal? I was going to suggest that perhaps an additional stylesheet (accessibility) is being applied... but just the word "Copy" in links - unlikely!

On that bitly.com page is the "Customize" link OK (next to the Copy link)?

Have you scanned for malware? But that sounds an unlikely cause, unless it is trying to be mega-subtle?!

[cbetter]

Yes, only IE9 as far as I can tell. FF and Chrome are OK.

Yes, tried clearing cache (numerous times).

I clicked around bitly more and noticed that the linked word "copy" appears in a few places (in a drop-down menu, on the "info page" for a given link) and, sure enough, the word "copy" is blacked out.

I ran IEs "developer tools" (similar to firebug) across one of the blacked-out buttons and got this...

<a class="copy white_button" href="#">
Text - Copy
<span class="clippy"/>
<div style="left: 0px; top: 0px; width: 100px; height: 31px; position: absolute; z-index: 99;">
<object width="100" height="31" align="middle" id="ZeroClipboardMovie_1" classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codeBase="https://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=9,0,0,0">
<param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"/>
<param name="allowFullScreen" value="false"/>
<param name="movie" value="/s/flash/zeroclipboard/ZeroClipboard.swf"/>
<param name="loop" value="false"/>
<param name="menu" value="false"/>
<param name="quality" value="best"/>
<param name="bgcolor" value="#ffffff"/>
<param name="flashvars" value="id=1&width=100&height=31"/>
<param name="wmode" value="transparent"/>

[londrum]

are you searching for the word 'copy' before you see the box? it might be highlighting every mention of the word... as a helpful thing... in the same way that google cache highlights the words in red, pink, yellow etc.

can you still highlight the word inside the black box by clicking your mouse across it? that means its not blacked out, its just that the background has been set to black.

[cbetter]

No, I'm not doing a search on the word "copy."

Yes, I can still roll my mouse over the black box and the links work...but that's not really the issue.

The issue is, the black boxes or backgrounds or whatever you want to call them don't belong there.

[Leosghost]

FI..Opera on linux does not show this "blackout" at bit.ly

[penders]

The word "Copy" in the link you've posted most probably comes from the Flash movie - which should be positioned on top of the actual text link. The other copy links might be similar. The Flash movie is required in order to implement the copy-to-clipboard functionality.

May be it's an issue with the Flash plugin? If I disable the Flash plugin in IE9 for instance then the Copy link disappears completely.

[cbetter]

Thanks, @penders, I disabled Flash and my copy links are gone now, too. Agree that it may be an issue with the Flash plugin. Not going to sweat it too much, but I'd really love to know why it's doing this.

[rocknbil]

When was the last time you ran a virus and/or malware scan?

[cbetter]

About 5 minutes ago (Malwarebytes). No malicious items found.