Originally Posted by
mikew99
I don't know who is right here; the article linked above doesn't explicitly say when the request to load the external content is made. At first glance, it doesn't make sense for Google to preload all external content, so the latter approach (loading it when the email is opened -- which might never happen) makes the most sense. On the other hand, Google could use this to speed up their email interface, in which case they could choose to preload some content (such as static images) when the email arrives.
The article mentions "
The Google server that temporarily stores the image contacts the Web address where the image is hosted only after a user opens the message," and that this was confirmed by third-party testing, where "
Google servers didn't download the images until after he opened the Gmail message and viewed the remote content."
Doesn't that indicate third-party content is
not pre-fetched when the email arrives at Google?