I didn't describe that well.
Any link sitting in your local browser is resolved by your local browser, usually your ISP.
The DNS delays I believe I can spot are server-side. When the server needs to resolve DNS addresses. Without access to the server logs, I could not say for sure, but based on the timing of some of the delays it is indicative of DNS resolution.
The other day I was watching with one of the network monitors that shows the headers, the object loading times, sources and routes. For the most part it was solid and fast and repeatable, but there were times when you would see delays in the loading. For the most part the delays were SSL handshakes.