PUBLIC MARKS from amyrussell with tags google & gmail

Over the weekend my Gmail finally got upgraded to the new version. (I know, I know, a week is hardly a long time to wait for a slow-rollout Google feature. But I'm impatient.) I have to say, the history and back-button support is AWESOME. It's funny that Gmail warns you in a huge red banner to disable Firebug. I, of course, kept it enabled and immediately began digging through the DOM of the new UI. As usual, most of the JavaScript is so obfusticated that it's hard to tell what's going on. Still, it's interesting to dig through layers and layers of iframes and nested divs and see how much DOM hackery is involved. Looking behind the scenes at any commercial-grade webapp is like taking a tour of a sausage factory.

Even though it's on a slow rollout and has reached only a handful of users, Gmail's new UI has already earned tons of coverage. The new Gmail boasts a fast new JavaScript architecture, an improved contact manager and a host of interface tweaks, all of which I'm dying to see and use. But the feature that excites me the most is back-button support.