No-JavaScript Webmail Challenge – Which Webmail Works Without It?

Most of us don’t give a second thought about browsing with JavaScript completely turned off. For those of you out there who are very anti-JavaScript, you’re probably using NoScript for selective enabling/disabling of JS based on what site you’re using.

I wanted to see however which webmail would work with no JS enabled whatsoever. Why do this? You wouldn’t believe how much faster your webmail works with it turned off, that’s why. True, you lose features by doing so, but hey, speed is good, right?

AOL Mail

Result: FAIL

AOL Mail absolutely will not let you in without JavaScript turned on. You can get to the login screen, but after that you see a rather disturbing "robot" made out of office supplies, door stoppers and what appears to be a parallel port for the mouth.

Yahoo! Mail

Result: SUCCESS

Yahoo! Mail Classic version does allow use with no JavaScript on whatsoever.

Hotmail

Result: FAIL

There’s no way to get into Hotmail without JavaScript. You can’t even load the login screen without it.

Gmail

Result: SUCCESS

Gmail prompts you to launch the "Basic" version, then loads the mail. It works with no JavaScript.

For you Yahoo! Mail and Gmail users out there, now you know you can eke out even more speed from your mail should you need it. It also means you can load your mail on older, slower computers without any problems at all.

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