If you're using Gmail as many of us do for your email you may have noticed some recent changes. Google has rolled out something they call tabs. The idea behind tabs is that Google is going to sort your email for you and tell you what's important and what's not. Each Gmail account now comes with three tabs. These tabs are labeled "Primary", "Social", and "Promotions".  And although Google says it's trying to make your life easier by telling what's important the truth is - it's another opportunity for Google to show you advertisements. In fact, if you click on the promotions tabs Google is going to show you advertisements that look like emails. No doubt a lot of people will assume there are messages sent to them and open them up.

The problem with the whole system is that it's terribly confusing. So far in my own experience I've seen several instances where an important transactional email went to my promotions tab while spammy emails from places I've never heard of continue to make it into my primary tab. So now I'm left essentially having to check my emails three times as compared to one because I have to look under these other tabs. That's the bad news, but here's the good news. You can disable all this tab sorting Google has forced up us. Here's how.

Step 1. Click on the "Cog" icon toward the upper right of your Gmail account and choose "Settings" from the drop down menu.

Step 2. From the settings page click on the tab labeled "Inbox".

Step 3. Uncheck each of the boxes in the category section except the one labeled "Primary". With all of the categories unchecked you can return to your inbox and see the tabs are gone and you're back to your normal inbox.