Not sure if this is a common annoyance, but the caret when I was browsing in Firefox always irritated the hell out of me, especially when watching VODs. I'd have to scroll up or down and place it somewhere, then scroll back so the little bastard wouldn't flash at me all the time.
Anyway, if you feel similarly and use Firefox, there's a simple solution that I recently became aware of. Just type the following in the address bar and hit Enter:
about:config
Type "caret" (without quotes) in the Filter box. You should see about four items in the list below. The one you're interested in is "accessibility.browsewithcaret"
Double-clicking this will toggle the option. Note that you can still select text with the cursor while browsing.