Look first at Abstracts, which usually arrive in
about 1/10th the time of a full article, if you are not certain
you want to see a full article. You can do this by clicking on
the [Abstract]
link in a table of contents or in a search result.
Increase the size of the cache that your browser uses to save items
that it has already seen. This will avoid returning to the server
to get a symbol or a button that has already been seen before.
You can change this in "Preferences/Advanced/Cache--Disk Cache".
Change the "Page in cache..." (Mac) or "Document in cache..."
(Windows) radio button in "Preferences/Advanced/Cache"
to "Once per session". This will ensure a minimum number of
inquiries to the server.
Upgrade to the latest version of your browser. Each new version appears to
have noticeable speed improvements, perhaps on the order of 20%.