Gmail Improved? How?

May, 22, 2008

Posted by George

UPDATE: New post Gmail Slow for you? Try these tips

You might have noticed, especially if you use Gmail daily that logging into Gmail is now faster. According to Gmail’s blog (and some high speed performance measuring apps).

Borrowing more from Google’s blog they have looked at everything between the moment you click the sign-in button until you hit your Inbox. Read the whole article:

A need for speed: the path to a faster loading sequence

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Tags: gmail, improvement, performance

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Posted in Computers by George | 13 Comments

13 Comments "Gmail Improved? How?"

Miles Nassah says:

May 23, 2008 at 12:11 am

Faster login? You have got to be kidding. Recently, my access is so slow that I have to click on the Basic HTML link to get Gmail to load. Gmail is now slower than a well-fed sloth. Please look at this again. I am in Thailand and Gmail is my lifeline. Thanks.
xyz says:

May 23, 2008 at 7:41 am

no you are telling a lie
Edekin Imoukhuede says:

May 23, 2008 at 12:17 pm

I can confirm that gmail loads much faster. Thanks all and keep up the good work.
Sudeep Das says:

May 23, 2008 at 1:03 pm

Hi,
It has definitely become faster and the blue loading sequence on the left is definitely more soothing than the alarming red on the right. thanks !!
bhogi gondalia says:

May 24, 2008 at 12:13 am

one of the best ways to make gmail faster is, i feel:
give a choice of loading e-mails to user as follows while registering/giving prefernces of your mail services – i.e. which one user want to have ?

1) Load all messages ?
2) Load messages last one week, last one month ?
3) Load only last 2 days messages?
4) Load all drafts ?
5) Load only last week’s drafts ?
6) Load all sent messages ?
7) Load only last few days messages ?
8 ) Load Spam ?
9) Load Trash ?
George says:

May 25, 2008 at 12:36 pm

I just wanted to start off saying that I don’t work for Gmail or Google (though it would be a dream come true to work for them!). For those of you having trouble with Gmail, you might want to take a look at bhogi gondalia post above with some great ideas for making your Gmail load even faster.

I’m lucky to be on cable so my Gmail typically loads in a couple of seconds. I noticed the cool new loading status bar and think its a great addition.
M. Welker says:

May 25, 2008 at 8:08 pm

George, I read bhogi gondalia’s blog and I’m on cable as well and I don’t need to look for improvements when I believe that is the job of GMAIL/GOOGLE. I read GMAIL is slower than molasses. It’s really pathetic and I’m going to another email provider. Those of you who think it is faster you must be on speed. I spend alot of time computers and as I’m typing, I have to wait for the letters to finally show up and I have a new DELL computer. Top of the line I might add. My sister has AOL without paying a dime and it is extremely fast!!!!!!!!

There needs to be ALOT more improvement. I’m really getting sick of it. I don’t have time for it….am I clear, can you read my lips????? If not, you can kiss my xxxxxxx.
George says:

May 25, 2008 at 9:41 pm

Hey M. Welker, I get that you’ve got a new computer and are also on cable, but I’m pretty sure that waiting for characters to show up as you type happens on your computer, not the Internet. Have you compared Gmail to Yahoo! or Hotmail? I have a feeling they might ne just as slow for you. Also have you tried your Gmail account on someone else’s computer? You might find your Gmail is faster on your sister’s computer, for example. Regardless I hope everything works out well for you.

Unfortunately in this day and age a new computer doesn’t mean top-of-the-line performance. I’ve got 330 unread messages in my inbox, 623 spams, and 81 contacts. Running Windows XP PC (2.4 Ghz CPU, and 1GB of RAM) on comcast cable just now with Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Windows Live Mail, Firefox with 6 tabs and my Gmail inbox loads in 3 seconds.
Eyebee says:

May 26, 2008 at 7:44 am

I don’t generally find Gmail to be any faster than it was, and most times it’s acceptable.

I do access my email several times a day, and tend to leave a tab open in Firefox with Gmail loaded into it.

I keep my inbox down to under 30-40 messages at any one time as a rule, and often empty it. I also regularly clean out the spam (in my experience Gmail has some of the best spam filtration I’ve ever come across, and with almost no intervention on my part).

I also use Gmail as my pop3 client, and have it collect both my personal and business mail.
George says:

May 26, 2008 at 10:14 am

Oh yes, I also use Gmail’s “Get mail from other accounts” under Settings >> Accounts to retrieve my work email when I am not at my home office and I enjoy the flexibility.

I’m not 100% sure its faster for me, but their blog says:

“While the improvements we made won’t resolve every ‘This is taking longer than usual…’ message you might see when loading Gmail over a slow connection, we’ve seen a real reduction (up to 20%) in overall load time compared to when we started.”
Alex says:

May 26, 2008 at 11:31 am

Since the change, I’ve noticed two things about your email:
1. While I use a cable broadband account, the STANDARD email loops forever trying to load, and load, and load, and …
2. The HTML email loads as quickly as the old, unimproved version did.

I use Firefox to read my gmail and have for at least a year. Gmail is still the best out there, but if you keep “improving” it, you may lose that edge.
aish says:

May 26, 2008 at 11:37 am

gmail has surely become faster than it earlier was, but still is lot slower than many of its competitors. i will surely celebrate the day when gmail loads as fast as http://www.google.com.

keep up the good work guys!
Colette says:

May 27, 2008 at 2:23 pm

It is pathetic and horrible for me on my older Mac laptop since you made the improvements. I hope you can fix this. At times it won’t load at all, other times it takes a l-o-n-g time. The HTML version is o.k. but does not have the other improvements. I eagerly await the time when you have fixed this! Thanks!