Why does my browser show I’m still downloading a webpage even though I’ve read to the bottom?

In this excerpt from
Answercast #13, I talk about how elements from a web page download into your
computer browser and make some suggestions on how to work with downloading
notifications.

Still downloading

This happens on Ask Leo! from time to time as well.

Here’s what’s going on (at least on my site) and I suspect it’s happening
for you too:

• In order to present the page more quickly, we have the page designed so the
  stuff you read (the actual article content) is downloaded and shown as quickly
  as possible.

• Other stuff – the ads, some of the other support code, the analytics code
  that tracks the number of people that are coming to the website (so I know
  which articles are most popular) – a number of things like that are what’s
  called “delay loaded.” They are loaded after the web page itself is technically
  finished.

When that first pass of showing you everything you need to see is done, then
this additional pass happens that downloads all this other stuff.

Typically, it’s pretty quick. I know that on Ask Leo! I’ve worked very hard
to minimize the amount of stuff that gets downloaded on each page because it
affects how usable the site is (or isn’t) for most people.

Downloading dynamic content

On the other hand, I know that other sites (particularly sites that are
loaded with a lot of advertising or have a lot of dynamic content like video
and so forth) have a lot of stuff that can “delay a load,” as they call it.

What might be happening is that stuff may still be downloading – may be loading
while you’re reading the article. It may keep on going and may not be done by
the time you get to the bottom and are ready to leave your comment.

Sometimes, one of those delay load items will fail for whatever reason. As
a result, it will still look like it’s trying to download even though the
download isn’t working.

Don’t worry about it

The good news is that it shouldn’t really affect anything.

The web page should be completely usable whether it’s finished downloading
like that or not. You should be able to post your comment.

Or stop the browser

If, for whatever reason, it annoys you, press the Esc key.

The Esc key is supposed to stop the browser from completing any pending
downloads that happen: not only the visual page itself (which is hopefully very
quick), but also any of this ‘delay loaded’ stuff.

So, hit the Esc key or just ignore it.