I have a slow loading front page with many .jpegs (they are thumbnails) embedded in it. I would like to figure out something clever like having a new page with text appear as the home page, leaving what I have there now below it, downloading. Then have the text automatically dissappear, leading the surfer to the present images. This would not only get rid of the annoying slow load of the home page, but also allow me to put Key words on the home page.

The question is: Is it legal, as far as Google is concerned, to have a time delayed redirect. Also, will the javascript that I need to do this, get in the way of the search engine? And if so, is there something I can do about it. Thanks...

Google dont mind you using a javascript redirect, But google wont follow it.
They might have a problem with you keyword stuffing the hompage and then redirecting users to another page though.

My idea is to put a newsletter login on the home page, then a redirect after maybe 5 seconds. If there was writing on the home page, which would be the key words, how would Google be able to say I was Key word stuffing or just providing a content filled home page?

If you are putting something on the homepage it's probably a bad idea to use a JS redirect, It's hard to know how google will interprite this.

It's possible that google dont like any redirects that have content on them..
If i was google i would think "if people are being redirected off of a page, why are they putting content on it?"..

What i would do it put the login and text on the page, But have a highly visible link saying "go to the main site".

This means people will be able to do what they want and google are guarenteed to have no problem with that,

Thanks... you sold me... Do you think that putting a page on the front end that loads faster and has more text content will help with the Position?

Content is king. The more content you have the more chance you have of turning up in a search.

The more content you have the more chance you have of turning up in a search

Not strictly true. If you qualify the statement a little

The more good quality and unique content you have the more chance you have of turning up in a search

makes it more accurate

The qualification would only be for human edited directories, right? Otherwise, what would you mean as far as good quality and unique when it comes to Google's bot?

Unique content is pages that are written by you, or a page that can't be found anywhere on the internet...