Get rid of the new tabs in Gmail

(MoneyWatch) Not every new Google feature is pure gold, and the latest update to Gmail -- tabs that automatically sort your mail into groupings like Social, Promotions, and Updates -- are not a hit with a lot of people. Indeed, there are a lot of folks demanding that this new inbox be turned off.

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Want your old Gmail inbox back? It's actually pretty easy to do. In just a few seconds, you can do away with the tabs entirely:

  • Click the in the upper right of the Gmail browser page.
  • Click Settings.
  • Switch to the Inbox tab.
  • Clear all the checkboxes you see for the new Categories.
  • Click Save Changes.

That's it. Of course, you can also experiment with the new category tabs and see if you like them. You can customize which tabs appear by going back to Options. Unfortunately, you can't do the one thing that might make this feature more palatable to many users: Customize the tabs or team Gmail new ones for more personal sorting.

Dave Johnson

View all articles by Dave Johnson on CBS MoneyWatch »
Dave Johnson is editor of eHow Tech and author of three dozen books, including the best-selling How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera. Dave has previously worked at Microsoft and has written about technology for a long list of magazines that include PC World and Wired.

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