Tip #3262 - Make Gmail Faster
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Make
Gmail Faster
Is your Gmail running
slow? You love it, but at the same time, you hate it when it takes ages
to load up your Inbox. Or maybe it keeps getting stuck at the loading
screen and sometimes gives you an error message. Gmail is no doubt an
excellent service from Google, however, for people with a slow connection,
it isn’t such a fabulous feature, as all the Java scripts that Google
has embedded in Gmail slows it down quite a bit. Sometimes it feels like
it takes forever to open up. Hence, today I am going to discuss a few
tips to make Gmail a bit faster than normal and what to do if it gets
stuck before it loads.
Let’s start
with your Gmail settings.
Gmail, by default,
shows 50 conversations on a single page. To make your Gmail load faster,
you can set the number of conversations (e-mails) to the lowest number
possible, which is 25. The fewer the conversations displayed, the faster
it will open up. To do this, click on the Settings link
and you will see the option under the General tab.
Gmail has a feature called Web Clips under the Settings link as well.
Web Clips displays news headlines from different Web sites right on top
of your Inbox. To make Gmail faster, you can disable them too. By doing
this, Gmail doesn’t have to go fetch headlines from another Web
site and feed it back into your Inbox, which cuts down on some of that
extra loading time. To do this, again go to Settings and
simply uncheck the box that says, “Show my Web Clips above
the Inbox,” which is located under the Web Clips
tab.
To load up Gmail really quick, try using a different URL. Instead of using
the common www.gmail.com, use the direct secure URL of https://mail.google.com.
Bookmark this address in your Favorites list so that you don’t forget
it. This direct link works much faster than the other.
If you don’t
mind getting rid of the swanky cool look of Gmail in return for making
it faster, you can also use the HTML link to open your Inbox. Again, instead
of using www.gmail.com, use https://mail.google.com/mail/h.
You will be surprised at how lightening fast this method can be. This
is also useful for people who experience browser crashes when trying to
access Gmail in the normal mode or for people whose Gmail gets stuck at
the loading stage. The trick is to access Gmail using the above link in
the HTML mode and if you want to go back to the regular mode at another
time, you can switch back once you have logged in via the HTML mode.
Also, if you like
your Gmail even easier to use without all the decoration and the Google
ads, use the Gmail mobile version, which you can access by going here.
This link also loads up in a jiffy, however, the interface is down to
the bare minimum, without all of the bells and whistles. But, if you can
handle that, you'll speed up your Gmail quite a bit.
Every time you log
into Gmail, it performs a browser check to figure out what kind of a browser
you are using and how Gmail should adapt to it. You can bypass this browser
check by using the link http://mail.google.com/gmail?nocheckbrowser
to access your e-mail. This not only lessens the time that Gmail takes
to open, but it also provides a way for people who are using non-supported
browsers to use Gmail. For instance, if you're using an older browser
like Internet Explorer 5, it is not supported by Gmail.
Lastly, something
that all of us should do regularly is clearing up the browser cache, the
cookies and the temporary Internet files. For people who browse a lot,
these things can grow in numbers rather quickly. Depending on how much
you browse everyday, do remember to clear your cache, Internet files and
cookies for all the browsers that you use. This will not only speed up
your Gmail, but your Internet surfing experience as a whole as well. Also,
not to forget, it frees up valuable hard disk space. These seem like just
a handful of simple things to do, but I assure you the performance enhancements
you'll see will be more than you ever expected!
~ Yogesh Bakshi
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