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When Gmail was launched, I was accessing it with my 1M broadband from China. But boy was it fast. Not just fast, it was clean, simple, pure. Hotmail, in contras

by schuke 13y ago

When Gmail was launched, I was accessing it with my 1M broadband from China. But boy was it fast. Not just fast, it was clean, simple, pure. Hotmail, in contrast, was clumsy and cluttered and Microsoft was stuffing everything MSN related into it, MSN Space etc. Ten years later I'm accessing Gmail, still from China, but with my 20M fiber-optic connection and yet it just won't open. (Certainly this has much to do with the government as well) But When I do get to open it, I see a cluttered interface with so much stuff I never use, Hangout, Google Plus, and so on. Now who's the go-to simple and pure email service? Outlook. Gmail these days is the mark of Google being an establishment.

nilkn 13y ago
Use the classic Gmail interface. It throws out all the Hangouts and G+ stuff and, for me at least, loads twice as fast. I've had it as my default for a while now. But you still get the advantage of Gmail's spam filter and image display. For what it's worth, I do enjoy the full mobile Gmail client, though. The tabs are actually useful to me there because I can easily control how I get push notifications (only for Primary tab emails).
Andrex 13y ago
Really? Gmail is more pure than it's ever been IMO. Here's a screenshot I took today: http://i.imgur.com/iVZ306S.png http://i.imgur.com/iVZ306S.png (I've been using this account for 6-7 years.) Chat has been apart of Gmail for a long time, and it's always been easy to turn it off. I barely even notice the Google+ integration, usually it's just pulling in profile stuff for the right sidebar. Now, Gmail not opening quickly has been a common complaint for many years, and seems to usually (but not always) correspond to the account having a lot of mail (usually in archives.) But that's more of a complaint of using Gmail for years and years. Certainly, they should upgrade their architecture so it isn't as much of a problem.
- philtar 13y ago
  Pure is pure, not stuff is hidden. Click on that 3x3 box of squares on the top right corner and take another screenshot. Or click on the cog. What's the difference between settings and configure inbox? Here's my screenshot. The red boxes are things in gmail by default that are NOT opt-in and are not in your screenshot: http://i.imgur.com/UGZbSky.png http://i.imgur.com/UGZbSky.png
amaks 13y ago
Try to use Google's DNS: 8.8.8.8 or 8.8.4.4
contingencies 13y ago
Absolutely, yes. I arrived in 2001 from Australia. Chinese internet was so fast then, faster than anything we had back home. The phenomenon you describe is due to particularly high packet loss, seemingly far higher on Google-related IP ranges: though routinely 20-40%, Google seems to be a bit higher, up to 60%. I have no proof of this other than personal observation across multiple devices and locations, but honestly it seems like a soft play by the government to punish Google. The best workaround is to use an out of country proxy over an SSH tunnel, or the same over OpenVPN over an SSH tunnel (I started seeing frequent disruption on OpenVPN links a few years ago, probably also due to packet loss. SSH handles this better).

by schuke 13y ago

nilkn 13y ago

Use the classic Gmail interface. It throws out all the Hangouts and G+ stuff and, for me at least, loads twice as fast. I've had it as my default for a while now. But you still get the advantage of Gmail's spam filter and image display. For what it's worth, I do enjoy the full mobile Gmail client, though. The tabs are actually useful to me there because I can easily control how I get push notifications (only for Primary tab emails).

Andrex 13y ago

Really? Gmail is more pure than it's ever been IMO. Here's a screenshot I took today: http://i.imgur.com/iVZ306S.png http://i.imgur.com/iVZ306S.png (I've been using this account for 6-7 years.) Chat has been apart of Gmail for a long time, and it's always been easy to turn it off. I barely even notice the Google+ integration, usually it's just pulling in profile stuff for the right sidebar. Now, Gmail not opening quickly has been a common complaint for many years, and seems to usually (but not always) correspond to the account having a lot of mail (usually in archives.) But that's more of a complaint of using Gmail for years and years. Certainly, they should upgrade their architecture so it isn't as much of a problem.

philtar 13y ago
Pure is pure, not stuff is hidden. Click on that 3x3 box of squares on the top right corner and take another screenshot. Or click on the cog. What's the difference between settings and configure inbox? Here's my screenshot. The red boxes are things in gmail by default that are NOT opt-in and are not in your screenshot: http://i.imgur.com/UGZbSky.png http://i.imgur.com/UGZbSky.png

amaks 13y ago

Try to use Google's DNS: 8.8.8.8 or 8.8.4.4

contingencies 13y ago

Absolutely, yes. I arrived in 2001 from Australia. Chinese internet was so fast then, faster than anything we had back home. The phenomenon you describe is due to particularly high packet loss, seemingly far higher on Google-related IP ranges: though routinely 20-40%, Google seems to be a bit higher, up to 60%. I have no proof of this other than personal observation across multiple devices and locations, but honestly it seems like a soft play by the government to punish Google. The best workaround is to use an out of country proxy over an SSH tunnel, or the same over OpenVPN over an SSH tunnel (I started seeing frequent disruption on OpenVPN links a few years ago, probably also due to packet loss. SSH handles this better).