GMail HTML View: When AJAX Slows You Down

One of the best things that Google had to offer when it started out was that it used an AJAX interface. This meant users no longer had to refresh their screens whenever they needed to check for new mail. This also meant that loading pages (emails, setting screens, folders/views) is faster, because your Web browser no longer had to load the entire page, but only a portion within.

This is considered to be an advantage over other web-based email services. You will notice how robust Gmail’s interface is. For one, refreshing an entire screen will take some time, especially if you’re on a slow connection, and more so if you’re using a slow machine. Also, it’s not just about the speed, but also the functionality. Using AJAX means you can include just about any dynamic content on the Gmail screen. Google took advantage of this and added notifications and even Google talk chat!

However, this robustness comes at a price. The initial loading time of Gmail takes longer than a static page because the AJAX container is itself loaded up the first time you open a Gmail session. So Gmail is only zippy once you have gone past loading the Gmail page itself. This could be a problem if you’re using a dial-up connection, since the first load might take anywhere from 500 Kilobytes to 1 Megabyte (or even more), which translates to five minutes on a 56Kbps connection in ideal times. It takes even longer when you have Gmail+chat loaded.

One alternative would be to keep your Gmail interface open on your web browser even when you disconnect. This way, when you reconnect, you won’t have to reload the whole thing, and the system will only load message headers (Windows hibernate mode or Mac OS X sleep mode are especially useful for this purpose).

Another solution: use HTML view. This type of view does away with the AJAX interface and presents a plain HTML Gmail interface. The primary purpose of HTML view is for those browsers that don’t support AJAX, such as older versions of Internet Explorer, Netscape, and even text-based browsers like Lynx, or when using alternative devices like mobile phones. However, HTML view can also come in handy even with supported browsers.

How to activate HTML view. Once logged in to standard view already, look for the basic HTML view link at the bottom part of the page.

Once you click that link, you will be logged into Gmail using HTML view on your subsequent visits from the browser you’re currently using. If you want to log in using standard view, regardless of browser, or after switching to HTML view, key this in your address box.

http://mail.google.com/gmail?nocheckbrowser