Okay, it looks like Google changed something with their Gmail service and now it’s broken if you visit the webpage with Safari as your web browser on a Mac.
Symptoms are: Long or infinite page load times, mail icons show-up on your desktop (see screen snapshot).
Solution #1: Use the following link to login http://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=html
Solution #2:
Use a different web browser for the time being. I tried Firefox and that works so I’d recommend that for now. If you have your email client configured for POP mail service with Gmail that may still work too.
They have to fix this, too many people use Gmail these days. Standard View in Gmail is broken, Basic View still works.
*UPDATE: The Real Solution
Go up to your Safari drop-down menu and choose Empty Cache. That should do it. Something left in there was mucking things up.