Something that may have gotten missed in all the recent updates is that the snapshots have a new URL that's faster! The new link uses a Content Delivery Network (CDN) which helps to speed up downloads by having more servers spread across all over the world to download it from.
It's now hosted at snapshot.gridcoin.us/snapshot.zip instead of the old download.gridcoin.us one. The wallet has already been using this link since 5.2 in the built in snapshot tool, and I recently updated the gridcoin.us website to point to this new link. The old link still works for now, but will be slower
This has helps make it faster by 1) having multiple servers to help keep up with the level of downloads and 2) having a copy of the snapshot be served by a geographically closer server to you instead of just one server that may be far away and slow things down
Note that syncing from zero is still recommended over using a snapshot since it doesn't rely on a centralized source. As well, using snapshots bypasses some of the checks that happen when you sync from zero
"Speed of light .." by Ү is licensed under CC BY 2.0 (image was modified)