If you are using gmail alot, then i recommend you to switch to google chrome. Google recommends google chrome instead of IE7 when accessing Gmail since it will give you quite a boost in speed by using google chrome. Some of the features of chrome include tabbed browsing where each tab gets its own process, leading to faster and more stable browsing. If one tab crashes, the whole browser doesn’t go down with it (IE will crash browser totally if one tab crash). Also, there is a useful malware and phishing lists that automatically update themselves and warn you of bad websites.
You can get your free copy of chrome here.