This appears to have been fixed by switching to oxide, which is built on the chromium content API, which seems to allocate the first few percents of the progress to waiting for a response from the server, as desired.
** Changed in: webbrowser-app Status: Confirmed => Fix Released ** Changed in: webbrowser-app (Ubuntu) Status: Confirmed => Fix Released -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Touch seeded packages, which is subscribed to webbrowser-app in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1227777 Title: [browser] No progress feedback while waiting for server to respond Status in Ubuntu UX bugs: Fix Committed Status in Web Browser App: Fix Released Status in “webbrowser-app” package in Ubuntu: Fix Released Bug description: 1. Click a link to a resource on a server that is slow to respond. What happens: Between the time you tap the link, and the time the server responds, there is no feedback that anything is happening. What should happen: Some sort of progress feedback. For example, Safari and Internet Explorer allocate a small fraction of the overall progress bar to the sub-task of waiting for the server to respond. Chrome's page-load spinner spins anti-clockwise while waiting for the server, then clockwise once it starts receiving data. To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu-ux/+bug/1227777/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~touch-packages Post to : touch-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~touch-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp