Corollary 2: I noticed bscorecardresearch.com is still operating, so it must be part and parcel of something else I have loaded. All suggestions welcome, and thanks for your time.

bab

Clear the cache and the cookies from sites that cause problems.

"Clear the Cache":

• Tools > Options > Advanced > Network > Offline Storage (Cache): "Clear Now"

"Remove Cookies" from sites causing problems:

• Tools > Options > Privacy > Cookies: "Show Cookies"

Start Firefox in Safe Mode to check if one of the extensions or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem (switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Appearance/Themes).

• Don't make any changes on the Safe mode start window.
• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Safe+Mode

• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Troubleshooting+extensions+and+themes

You can also do a search on the about:config page and reset prefs that apply.

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/about:config

Do a malware check with some malware scanning programs on the Windows computer.
You need to scan with all programs because each program detects different malware.
Make sure that you update each program to get the latest version of their databases before doing a scan.

• http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php - Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware
• http://www.superantispyware.com/ - SuperAntispyware
• http://www.microsoft.com/security/scanner/en-us/default.aspx - Microsoft Safety Scanner
• http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/defender/default.mspx - Windows Defender: Home Page
• http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html - Spybot Search & Destroy

You can also do a check for a rootkit infection with TDSSKiller.

• http://support.kaspersky.com/viruses/solutions?qid=208280684

See also:

• "Spyware on Windows": http://kb.mozillazine.org/Popups_not_blocked

After a rather extensive, and tedious, search I discovered it's easy to block b.scorecardresearch.com by going to Firfox Tools>Options>Privacy>Exceptions, typing in b.scorecardresearch.com, then pushing the Block button. Nothing else seemed to work, and I believe the spyware was loading from Flickr, a site I visit routinely.

This didn't, however, solve the original problem I was researching: the first time I try to access Gmail using Firefox, it can take up to 2 minutes to load. After that, it loads quickly. This doesn't happen if I open Firefox in safe mode (everything disabled), but I've removed all the add-ons and the theme I use and it still doesn't fix the problem. Therefore I started watching for oddball downloads.

Scorecardresearch seemed to fit the bill for a delay upon loading, but apparently it's something else, maybe something with Gmail itself. No Scripts doesn't routinely block anything from Gmail, so I'll scratch my head and see what I can find. Perhaps the best thing to do is just return Firefox to default mode, then start adding extensions and plug-ins until the problem returns. But I'm not certain it's worth the time and effort.

BAB