It Only Took Me 1 Year To Discover the HTML Version of Gmail

I am a Gmail fan, as many of you I would guess. I have 5 different accounts forwarded to my Gmail account, so that I can control all my business emails from a single hub. I love the functionalities and the user interface, but there is one thing that always annoyed me: the slow AJAX platform.

Even if you have a broadband connection you will need to wait a couple of seconds for Gmail to load. If you have conversations with dozens of replies back and forth, they might also take a while to load completely. I just got used to the waiting times.

Then today I was reading my RSS feeds and I came across a post from Google Operating System that fixed the issue for me. It was a matter of 2 clicks to set the HTML version as the default one.

gmail html version

I had seen the HTML version before, but I thought it was loaded automatically when your connection was slow or faulty. Now I know that you can set it manually as the default. It only took me one year to figure it out….

Keep in mind you will lose most of the features under the HTML version, but if you are aiming for fast loading times only (which I do during business hours) it could work.

Daniel Scocco on May 17, 2008 Subscribe to our RSS Feed

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23 Responses to “It Only Took Me 1 Year To Discover the HTML Version of Gmail”

Arlo Gilbert on May 17th, 2008 11:10 am

I agreed. You are correct
Jeremy on May 17th, 2008 11:17 am

It’s actually been around a long time, and if you use a browser on a PDA, that’s your only option.

I personally think the full interface is faster, because it tends to do a lot of prefetching in the background. If you click on an email in your inbox, it comes up straight away, with no loading times. It’s not possible for Google to do that with the basic version.

Then again, I have an OLPC XO-1 which doesn’t have much grunt, and Gmail tends to use up a lot of memory on that thing. It takes literally about 60 seconds for Gmail to load, and at least 5-8 seconds after clicking a message before it actually loads, because it has to run so much JavaScript. In the XO’s case, the basic HTML version is faster.
Lisa on May 17th, 2008 11:28 am

Have you noticed too that the loading page has changed? It now tells you which account is loading and at the bottom it gives you the immediate option of switching to the HTML version. I may have to check it out though, because ever since they made that change it loads even slower.
Daniel Scocco on May 17th, 2008 11:39 am

@Lisa, for me it is much faster. It could because most of my messages have several pages of replies and signatures.
job on May 17th, 2008 2:10 pm

I love Gmail too and I am using Gtalk as well to communicate with friends, if only I can add my yahoo and msn friends then would be better..
Nate Nead on May 17th, 2008 3:05 pm

Yeah, I have such a horrible internet connection, I’ve had to use the HTML version several times in the last couple years, when my connection is too slow etc.
Madhur Kapoor on May 17th, 2008 3:56 pm

I have to use the HTML version almost all the time as net in college is very slow.
Ades on May 17th, 2008 5:52 pm

I noticed today that now there is a “loading bar” in gmail before it opens your inbox. And at the bottom right screen there is a link to HTML-version. It’s something new.
Daniel Scocco on May 17th, 2008 6:03 pm

@Madhur, I do it anyway because it is faster here.

@Ades, yeah I noticed that loading bar also, and I am glad I discovered the HTML version just in time to avoid it :).
Rockstar Sid on May 17th, 2008 6:05 pm

I will help you in this,i have been using for years

go to m.gmail.com

and write your pass and login,next scroll down and press html version
Wendy on May 17th, 2008 8:47 pm

I noticed the loading bar this morning and I was wondering what that was all about. I think I need to check out the other versions, I’m just nosy and like to see who else is online, even if I don’t actually want to talk to them
Rakshit on May 18th, 2008 7:23 am

I use it frequently. The net connection is too bad out here.

It took you 1 year to discover that. Well, it took me 1 and a half years to find out saved passwords in firefox. Silly am I.
Eli on May 18th, 2008 7:29 am

I’ve sort of known about the HTML version for a little while, but never really needed to use it until my internet connection was recently capped, then Gmail shows me a loading screen and says I should use HTML version for slow internet connections

It is really quite nice though, in fact I think it might look nicer than the regular version, but one down side is no Gmail chat.
The Other Daniel on May 18th, 2008 9:52 pm

I have only recently moved to gmail and didn’t even know that feature existed!, Thanks Daniel
Don M. on May 18th, 2008 11:30 pm

I too noticed the loading page status bar. It’s funny how after looking at an interface for so long you can pick up immediate tweaks one day and totally ignore others like, for example, your HTML version of Gmail.
BlogTalks on May 19th, 2008 4:25 am

Only a few seconds, it takes about 20 seconds to load load Gmail for me. Guess I should switch to standard as well.
Fastgone on May 19th, 2008 5:57 am

it took you one year to figure out?
well…
after read your blog, i think i dont need one year to figure it out
cause recently my connecction is damn crap
thanks daniel
basketball on May 20th, 2008 2:37 am

How do you change gmail so when you send email it doesn’t say “email sent on behalf of ____@gmail.com?”
space code on May 20th, 2008 10:11 pm

My connection is kinda bad sometimes so most of the time i get the basic HTML version. Oh btw, recently I noticed that when you log it and its loading your inbox, thrs an option to choose HTML on the bottom right
caTcode on May 21st, 2008 6:42 am

Clean and fast make gmail become my favourite stuff. without any changed Gmail still a great machine..
Arlo Gilbert on May 21st, 2008 7:21 am

Yeah I think they made that just for the internet users that don’t have the speed of a dsl or t3 connection
loans on May 23rd, 2008 5:31 am

yeah u are rite…u need to set it according to the connection u have…I tried b4, smoothen after setup manually..