Yeah, but Gmail's inbox view is paginated. I don't think the number of conversations shown on a single page has changed since then. Maybe the conversations themselves have gotten longer?
I'm sure Google's engineers could get the page load time down if it was a priority. I think at this point everyone is so invested in Gmail they just aren't that worried about losing users because of slower UI load times.
I would imagine this is due to user behavior. How often do you refresh a gmail tab? I leave mine open for days, so having it load the entire app slowly isn't an issue. What is important is updating in realtime when a new email comes in and opening those almost instantly when I select them. If that is the norm, then initial page loads aren't nearly as important.
Hmm, perhaps I'm atypical. I generally don't leave my email open and respond in real time. I tend to do it in batches, so I reopen gmail multiple times a day.
I'm sure Google's engineers could get the page load time down if it was a priority. I think at this point everyone is so invested in Gmail they just aren't that worried about losing users because of slower UI load times.