I think they're great, and it's not much different from progressive image loading that's been around for decades. Images going from blurry to sharp was a big thing back in the 1990's over dial-up AOL and MSN.
> I'd much rather see engineers spending more time making the thumbnails load faster
Generally it's a client-side bandwidth/latency issue, not something on the server. Think particularly on mobile and congested wi-fi, or just local bandwidth saturation.
> The blurry thumbnails have 2 issues 1) trick person into thinking they're loaded
I've never found myself thinking that -- a blurry-gradient image seems to be generally understood as "loading". Which goes all the way back to the 90's.
> 2) have a meaning that content is blocked from viewing
In that case there's almost always a message on top ("you must subscribe"), or at least a "locked" icon or something.
These blurry images are designed for use in photos that accompany an article, grids of product images, etc. I don't think there's generally any confusion as to what's going on, except "the photo hasn't loaded yet", which it hasn't. I find they work great.
>it's not much different from progressive image loading that's been around for decades
Progressive images suck. PNG's implementation is particularly awful, as you have to use increasing amounts of brainpower to tell whether it has finished loading or not.
> I'd much rather see engineers spending more time making the thumbnails load faster
Generally it's a client-side bandwidth/latency issue, not something on the server. Think particularly on mobile and congested wi-fi, or just local bandwidth saturation.
> The blurry thumbnails have 2 issues 1) trick person into thinking they're loaded
I've never found myself thinking that -- a blurry-gradient image seems to be generally understood as "loading". Which goes all the way back to the 90's.
> 2) have a meaning that content is blocked from viewing
In that case there's almost always a message on top ("you must subscribe"), or at least a "locked" icon or something.
These blurry images are designed for use in photos that accompany an article, grids of product images, etc. I don't think there's generally any confusion as to what's going on, except "the photo hasn't loaded yet", which it hasn't. I find they work great.