A system and process are disclosed for providing users with page previews during page loading events, such that the delay experienced before the display of page content is reduced. The previews may include screenshots of the pages or of portions thereof, and may be generated periodically and cached by the system for delivery to user devices. The process of generating and delivering the previews via the Internet or some other network may be implemented partly or wholly within an intermediary system that sits logically between the user devices and content servers. The process may be used with existing browsers without the need for any browser modifications, or may be used with a “preview-aware” browser that includes special program code for providing page previews.