/**
* observes for the firing of the window load event using the prototype library
* When the event is fired it checks if the animated_icon element exists on the page
* If the element exists it replaces it's content with a  
*/
Event.observe(	window, 'load',
				function ()
				{   if($('animated-icon'))
					{    $('animated-icon').update(' ');
					}
                }
              );

/**
* This function is called to add an animated gif icon to the page that shows that results are being populated
*/
function add_animated_icon()
{    $('animated-icon').update('<center><img src="http://www.aber.ac.uk/gsearch/ajax-loader.gif"></center>');
}