After clicking a link on a page A, there is an interim period of time before page B loads. During this time period, it can often be ambiguous as to which context the browser is currently in. This means that the user doesn't know whether clicking Stop will leave him on page A or page B. When I accidentally click on a page, I find this information useful. I don't want to waste my dial-up connection waiting for the page to load, but has page B already begun to load? If page B is current context, I need to click Back, otherwise click Stop. There's not always a good way to decide which is appropriate, so it would help if the UI somehow updated to show that the old context has been lost, context is now page B.

So, er ... What do you want, exactly?

I'm not attached to any particular implementation, because I don't want my UI ineptness to be an excuse for a WONTFIX. My initial thought was some kind of visual token in the Stop button or on the throbber, but that seems too noisy. This should be subtle. An animated button transition would be cool, too, but is similarly overkill. Really, all I require of the implementation is that it be near the Stop or Back buttons, because that is where I will be looking. Perhaps you have a slick idea for this UI?

Um, does IE have any transitions? Generally, cant you tell when the page begins loading by the <title>?

See also bug 78681, "hitting Escape while page is paint-suppressed should toss out partially loaded page". That would allow you to hit stop at any time while the old page is displayed and be sure that you're cancelling the load.

May be something in progressbar and tabs? See also 117161

This bug report still makes very little sense to me. `Which context the browser is currently in' is, obviously, which page is shown at that millisecond in the content area. If there are any occasions when that's not the case, they should be filed as bugs. If bug 78681 is the only such case, this bug should be marked as a duplicate.

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 78681 ***