What is the name of the method in which images on a web page disappear when scrolling through the list?

Question

Here is a web page that does what I am describing: http://mashable.com/2010/05/13/mobile-tech-journalists/

What happens to images? They seem to load and disappear when you view them in a view.

Is there a name for this technique? Is this a new optimization method? Where can I find out more about this?

Answer 1

Images are uploaded using Ajax, and after they are uploaded on the client side, they are displayed using the fade-in effect (possibly using jQuery). This is an optimization method because it means that you only upload images that the user is actually looking at. If the user is only reading the top of the page, it makes no sense to send him all the page images. Thus, it reduces part of the web traffic generated by the web server.

Answer 2

It was called lazy loading and there is a jQuery plugin for that.