The LOWSRC Attribute

plugins and media 1995 dead

Show a tiny placeholder first, then swap in the real photo when it finally arrives.

In 2026: Dead: dropped from browsers, though the idea came back as progressive JPEG and then as modern lazy loading with a blurred placeholder. On a 28.8k modem a 40k photo took twelve seconds, so this mattered.

Where it came from: Netscape Navigator 1.1 HTML extensions, 1995. MDN ↗

<img src="https://xbawx.com/inc/img/demo/photo.jpg" lowsrc="https://xbawx.com/inc/img/demo/photo_tiny.jpg"
     width="400" height="300" alt="Holiday photo">

<!-- The 2026 version of the same idea -->
<img src="https://xbawx.com/inc/img/demo/photo.jpg" width="400" height="300" loading="lazy"
     alt="Holiday photo"
     style="background: url(https://xbawx.com/inc/img/demo/photo_tiny.jpg) center/cover">

sandboxed demo · breaks nothing but itselfrestart

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