True for Gmail, though Google+ renders most of the initial page view in static HTML/CSS, then progressively enhances subsequent pages using JS and a variety of

True for Gmail, though Google+ renders most of the initial page view in static HTML/CSS, then progressively enhances subsequent pages using JS and a variety of techniques, including embedded frames and pushState. There's a lot that goes into making G+ so fast, and pre-rendering a big is part of it. By way of comparison, view the following two links in a javascript-less browser (or just view source): $ w3m http://twitter.com/#!/danwrong/status/171680703824662528 $ w3m https://plus.google.com/117377434815709898403/posts/f35f8QvHab7 The first link contains nothing but boilerplate and the JS that lazily loads the real content, whereas the second contains the actual content ready for the client to render immediately (and index, if you're a crawler). This is a good move by Twitter. I wholeheartedly endorse it.