If you use iGoogle a lot, you might have noticed that the page loads slowly because of the Google Talk embedded in the sidebar. Unlike other iGoogle Gadgets that you can easily manage either by settings or simply deletion, you can’t mess with the Google Talk tab on the sidebar. Or can you?

According to Google System, you can disable the Gtalk sidebar tab via the iGoogle settings page(which apparently only a handful of people know about).

iGoogle Settings

You can manage all of the gadgets and tabs there and among other things, also decide weather or not you want to have Google Talk in the sidebar. If you don’t want it, select the hide chat ratio button. And you’re iGoogle page will load just a bit faster. In my testing with and without the Gtalk sidebar, I get aboutsecond difference in load time. Without it is a second faster than with it. Is it worth it? If you have a fast connection, it shouldn’t bother you to:

• Download the Gtalk client
• Go to Google.com/talk
• Open up Gmail

So, in conclusion, you can pretty easily turn off the Google Talk Sidebar tab if it bothers you by going to iGoogle Settings.