It always have been like that for me. Not sure why but it does lock up my browser most of the time. I reached the point that I avoided it all together.
Might be a problem or might not?? I have found the site to be incredibly slow to load......sometimes takes 15 minutes. I log on in one window and let it cook and then relog on to IAP in another window and go on about my business.
I just tried it. It took approx 2 secs, on a cable modem and a Macintosh running OSX and Safari. Time was 3:56 PM EST.
Sometimes it depends on the time of day and thus the other traffic on the networks. Cable is essentially a big LAN (local area network), so it is sort of like a party line. It also may depend on what else you have running on your computer, how the resources are allocated. Sometimes rebooting will help. Sometimes nothing helps![]
I tried it when I registered on this site and it locked up every time,
just for grins, I tried it earlier this evening and it locked up both times, it has never worked for me.
Apparently, since I'm not the only one having problems, I would assume the problem is not at my end, but in the system.
My version of Google Earth is working well.
Floyd