'It's paramount to patenting seeing images in your web browser'
That's a bad analogy. The method for viewing images online had to be created by someone. Just like TCP/UDP/et all had to be created by someone somewhere. An annex to existing technology is still a creation. Now coming up with the idea that people could view images on a browser is to nebulous to patent. But coming up with a way for people to do as such is not.
