diff --git a/client/app/scripts/components/status.js b/client/app/scripts/components/status.js
index d9c98677a8..fc0219a296 100644
--- a/client/app/scripts/components/status.js
+++ b/client/app/scripts/components/status.js
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 import React from 'react';
 import { connect } from 'react-redux';
 
+import { isWebsocketQueryingCurrentSelector } from '../selectors/timeline';
+
 
 class Status extends React.Component {
   render() {
@@ -25,13 +27,9 @@ class Status extends React.Component {
       showWarningIcon = true;
     } else if (topology) {
       const stats = topology.get('stats');
-      if (showingCurrentState) {
-        text = `${stats.get('node_count') - filteredNodeCount} nodes`;
-        if (stats.get('filtered_nodes')) {
-          text = `${text} (${stats.get('filtered_nodes') + filteredNodeCount} filtered)`;
-        }
-      } else {
-        text = '';
+      text = `${stats.get('node_count') - filteredNodeCount} nodes`;
+      if (stats.get('filtered_nodes')) {
+        text = `${text} (${stats.get('filtered_nodes') + filteredNodeCount} filtered)`;
       }
       classNames += ' status-stats';
       showWarningIcon = false;
@@ -40,7 +38,7 @@ class Status extends React.Component {
     return (
       <div className={classNames}>
         {showWarningIcon && <span className="status-icon fa fa-exclamation-circle" />}
-        <span className="status-label" title={title}>{text}</span>
+        <span className="status-label" title={title}>{showingCurrentState && text}</span>
       </div>
     );
   }
@@ -50,7 +48,7 @@ function mapStateToProps(state) {
   return {
     errorUrl: state.get('errorUrl'),
     filteredNodeCount: state.get('nodes').filter(node => node.get('filtered')).size,
-    showingCurrentState: !state.get('websocketTimestampOffset'),
+    showingCurrentState: isWebsocketQueryingCurrentSelector(state),
     topologiesLoaded: state.get('topologiesLoaded'),
     topology: state.get('currentTopology'),
     websocketClosed: state.get('websocketClosed'),
diff --git a/client/app/scripts/reducers/root.js b/client/app/scripts/reducers/root.js
index 4369f742ac..2503880e78 100644
--- a/client/app/scripts/reducers/root.js
+++ b/client/app/scripts/reducers/root.js
@@ -87,7 +87,7 @@ export const initialState = makeMap({
   topologyOptions: makeOrderedMap(), // topologyId -> options
   topologyUrlsById: makeOrderedMap(), // topologyId -> topologyUrl
   topologyViewMode: GRAPH_VIEW_MODE,
-  updatePausedAt: null, // moment.js timestamp
+  updatePausedAt: null,
   version: '...',
   versionUpdate: null,
   viewport: makeMap(),
@@ -616,6 +616,10 @@ export function rootReducer(state = initialState, action) {
 
       state = state.set('errorUrl', null);
 
+      // When moving in time, we will consider the transition complete
+      // only when the first batch of nodes delta has been received. We
+      // do that because we want to keep the previous state blurred instead
+      // of transitioning over an empty state like when switching topologies.
       if (state.get('websocketTransitioning')) {
         state = state.set('websocketTransitioning', false);
         state = clearNodes(state);
diff --git a/client/app/scripts/selectors/timeline.js b/client/app/scripts/selectors/timeline.js
index 1bb7b801e3..ae84cb43d8 100644
--- a/client/app/scripts/selectors/timeline.js
+++ b/client/app/scripts/selectors/timeline.js
@@ -7,3 +7,10 @@ export const isPausedSelector = createSelector(
   ],
   updatePausedAt => updatePausedAt !== null
 );
+
+export const isWebsocketQueryingCurrentSelector = createSelector(
+  [
+    state => state.get('websocketQueryMillisecondsInPast')
+  ],
+  websocketQueryMillisecondsInPast => websocketQueryMillisecondsInPast === 0
+);
diff --git a/client/app/scripts/utils/topology-utils.js b/client/app/scripts/utils/topology-utils.js
index f829bcbe27..40020711f8 100644
--- a/client/app/scripts/utils/topology-utils.js
+++ b/client/app/scripts/utils/topology-utils.js
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 import { endsWith } from 'lodash';
 import { Set as makeSet, List as makeList } from 'immutable';
 
+import { isWebsocketQueryingCurrentSelector } from '../selectors/timeline';
 import { isResourceViewModeSelector } from '../selectors/topology';
 import { pinnedMetricSelector } from '../selectors/node-metric';
 
@@ -134,7 +135,8 @@ export function getCurrentTopologyOptions(state) {
 }
 
 export function isTopologyNodeCountZero(state) {
-  return state.getIn(['currentTopology', 'stats', 'node_count'], 0) === 0;
+  const nodeCount = state.getIn(['currentTopology', 'stats', 'node_count'], 0);
+  return nodeCount === 0 && isWebsocketQueryingCurrentSelector(state);
 }
 
 export function isNodesDisplayEmpty(state) {
diff --git a/client/app/scripts/utils/web-api-utils.js b/client/app/scripts/utils/web-api-utils.js
index 25d3c0ea03..bfc5784902 100644
--- a/client/app/scripts/utils/web-api-utils.js
+++ b/client/app/scripts/utils/web-api-utils.js
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ import { blurSearch, clearControlError, closeWebsocket, openWebsocket, receiveEr
 import { getCurrentTopologyUrl } from '../utils/topology-utils';
 import { layersTopologyIdsSelector } from '../selectors/resource-view/layout';
 import { activeTopologyOptionsSelector } from '../selectors/topology';
+import { isWebsocketQueryingCurrentSelector } from '../selectors/timeline';
 import { API_REFRESH_INTERVAL, TOPOLOGY_REFRESH_INTERVAL } from '../constants/timer';
 
 const log = debug('scope:web-api-utils');
@@ -48,6 +49,7 @@ let continuePolling = true;
 export function buildUrlQuery(params) {
   if (!params) return '';
 
+  // Ignore the entries with values `null` or `undefined`.
   return params.map((value, param) => {
     if (value === undefined || value === null) return null;
     if (List.isList(value)) {
@@ -238,10 +240,10 @@ export function getTopologies(options, dispatch, initialPoll) {
 }
 
 function getWebsocketQueryTimestamp(state) {
-  const millisecondsInPast = state.get('websocketQueryMillisecondsInPast');
   // The timestamp query parameter will be used only if it's in the past.
-  if (millisecondsInPast === 0) return null;
+  if (isWebsocketQueryingCurrentSelector(state)) return null;
 
+  const millisecondsInPast = state.get('websocketQueryMillisecondsInPast');
   return moment().utc().subtract(millisecondsInPast).toISOString();
 }