I came here looking for technical details of how the implemented it...wonder if they're using flash.

its a kind of lazy stuff i feel when i try to upload more than 5 MB files. GMAIL Needs to have an initiative to put progress bar while uploading. I feel, its a part of UI Rules, that any email upload must be constituted with a progress bar. Progress bar allows lot of advantages in giving comfort to user. ANyways, GMail Team might have their own answer. Better i upload this answer or question in Google GROUPS - GMAIL.

http://groups.google.co.in/group/Gmail-Users?hl=en&lnk=gschg

I assume we're talking about a real progress bar shoing % complete and not a pseudo barberpole or logarithmic bar that keeps advancing more and more slowly until the upload is complete.

If there's sample code out there for this I'd love to see it.

You just have to manipulate the form data directly. Pretty simple with Perl but you have to use a workaround with PHP (either a Perl script or you patch your PHP installation).

I'd *love* to have a progress bar, but to do that you'd have to know how large the file is, and the only way that a browser will transmit that data is if you put in an ActiveX control, and that doesn't play well with Firefox...