Loading on scroll

[whatson]

what is it called when parts of a page download on scroll
i.e. they are not downloaded until the page is scrolled down that far. Usually its images.

[Demaestro]

I usually see it referred to as infinite scrolling

There is an example and some samples here:
www.infinite-scroll.com

Infinite scroll has been called autopagerize, unpaginate, endless pages. But essentially it is pre-fetching content from a subsequent page and adding it directly to the user’s current page.

[whatson]

This seems to becoming quite a common feature on major sites these days. I guess the main purpose is to reduce download speed.

[Demaestro]

From a user's perspective it is one less thing you have to click on.

Instead of clicking -> Next <- Previous or page# you simple scroll up or down.

With the influx of touch devices "less clicking" is becoming a prevailing design mantra.

[whatson]

Is the content still in the source for the search engines to see?

[Demaestro]

I don't think so but there must be tricks to have it indexable.

[yaix2]

>>I guess the main purpose is to reduce download speed.

And to keep users longer on the site. Every click causes some users to abandon a page. With infinite scrolling, the content is always "already there" to look at. No waiting after a click.