In Safari when I want to check my iCloud mail, it's usually in two steps:
First: I open iCloud.com in Safari. Second: Click Mail icon in iCloud, and I have my e-mail messages.
Now I can do this in just one step:
If I instead bookmark https://www.icloud.com/#mail in Safari's Bookmarks bar, I can go straight to the Mail inbox in iCloud with just one click. Almost like accessing a Gmail account.
This is also valid for Contacts, Calendar and iWork:
Mac OS X Hints
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20111106115328136