Yes. I switched to using the "Basic HTML" version by default. Either turn JavaScript off and refresh the page once logged in, or click "Load basic html (for slow connections)" while the loading animation plays to get to it.
Ask HN: Anyone else find the new Gmail interface sluggish?
161–170 of 222 posts
Re: Ask HN: Anyone else find the new Gmail interface sluggish?
#162Not directly related, but I reckon the mentality of some web developers I've complained to about their "appsites" being sluggish is similar here --- "it works perfectly fine for me, how about you upgrade your hardware?" I've heard that you can use http://mail.google.com/mail/h/ to get a basic HTML version.
I just tried /mail/h in https and got redirected back to the new version. If it does work in http then alas, I don't want the old design back that badly.
Turn off JavaScript and refresh the main page once you're logged in. You should get prompted to either enable JS or click through for basic HTML mode. Once you're in basic HTML mode, you can click "Set basic HTML as default view" at the top if you like it.
No need to use HTTP instead of HTTPS.
Re: Ask HN: Anyone else find the new Gmail interface sluggish?
#163Earlier quoted context omitted.
They have invested so many billions in their pipeline and committed so much head space that it's incredibly difficult to change their tech stack to improve performance. Users suffer because of poor performance but at least management can brag about compliance, code reuse, being able to quickly push out production code, etc.
Users suffer because of poor performance but at least management can brag about compliance, code reuse, being able to quickly push out production code, etc. I've seen this type of behaviour become more prevalent especially within the last 5 years or so, and it's just as irritating to me --- especially when resolving user-complaints take a backseat to improving whatever useless metric-of-the-week the management have t…
> I've seen this type of behaviour become more prevalent especially within the last 5 years or so
It's much older, but previously you'd see it more in the desktop space.
As for the server, an interesting thing happened: the proprietary software used to follow similar trend (I'm talking to you, big fat database vendors), with some open-source projects behaving the same. But people are not stupid: you realize you win by serving your clients fast and that very often speed is more important than functionality. Hence the success of projects like Nginx or Redis.
Re: Ask HN: Anyone else find the new Gmail interface sluggish?
#164Hell yes. I've been a gmail user for 15 years and I can't use gmail in my browser anymore.
For work, we migrated from Google apps to Fastmail.
But I still have 15 years of personal @gmail.com email and it's been my address forever. I currently use my phone for personal email (even when I don't want to) because the website no longer responds to input.
Re: Ask HN: Anyone else find the new Gmail interface sluggish?
#165Noticed that too. Even with a powerful computer. The tags also take times to be automatically by associated to email you've just sent.
Re: Ask HN: Anyone else find the new Gmail interface sluggish?
#166Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ah! I often wonder, how and why does Google decide to change the UI to well established products like Gmail? It's certain to annoy veteran users, so I'm particularly puzzled when the decide to shake things up, UX wise, for no apparent usability or feature gain. I suppose your post is at least partly an explanation.
In this particular case, Gmail surely needed to be brought in line with Material Design (as has been happening to all Google apps, like Keep last week)... and the fact it now works offline (in its native interface, not the old kludge) is the biggest usability/feature gain (pretty huge, really). They've actually been adding a ton of new features over the past year, especially with Inbox functionality being merged in.
In split view, clicking a message to view it also adds 'archive' buttons under the mouse. So viewing a message immediately archives it.
Even if you could type text and have it appear on screen in a reasonable time, the current state of gmail is /insane/.
Re: Ask HN: Anyone else find the new Gmail interface sluggish?
#167Earlier quoted context omitted.
Which big company starts with "N"? I can only think of Nintendo..
The N in FAANG stands for Netflix, because people needed an N and FAAG would be awkward.
Also because Netflix is a world class engineering company - they led in cloud, popularised chaos engineering, and are in the process of destroying the cable industry.
Re: Ask HN: Anyone else find the new Gmail interface sluggish?
#168Am a googler (hence throwaway account) & I can easily tell you why this shit keeps happening! Google featureless ZERO penalties for fucking shit up! Zero! Do you know what the people who wasted two years on Allo got after it was canned? Nothing! Some of them actually got promoted! Google GREATLY encourages "launches" - releasing something publicly. And keep in mind - no penalties if the shit is half baked, not workin…
Exact same situation at Amazon. Launches (doesn't matter how useless and broken) >> Fixes
Re: Ask HN: Anyone else find the new Gmail interface sluggish?
#169Earlier quoted context omitted.
More specifically, sluggish websites seem to result from the popularity of "responsive design".
Responsive design isn't to blame at all. The "Javascript all the things" approach is to blame.
It seems that the two have a tendency to go hand-in-hand, though.
You can absolutely do a good responsive design in pure HTML+CSS. What seems to happen in practice, though, is pages that appear as flat white if I don't fiddle with my NoScript settings, and that grind on my (admittedly not top-of-the-line) computer if I do.
Re: Ask HN: Anyone else find the new Gmail interface sluggish?
#170On top of the new gmail being extremely slow the new google Ads or AdWords is so much worse. I have to run an ec2 instance at work in order to get just “ok” speeds. This is with fiber optic internet...