Dear PropellerHeads: My wife and I have separate Gmail accounts for our personal email. As of a few days ago, her "Inbox" screen has new tabs across the top to help her organize her messages, but my account does not have this feature. What's going on?

A: It's obvious what's going on - Gmail likes your wife better than it likes you. And can you blame it? She works hard all day and still finds time to take care of you, while you spend all your free time playing video games. If I were Gmail, I'd randomly delete your Inbox messages until you grew up.

Either that, or Google is just rolling out their latest Gmail feature gradually, and it hasn't found its way to you yet. The so-called "New Inbox" automatically sorts your incoming email into different categories, which you access by clicking on one of five available tabs along the top of the screen.

The categories are "Primary," which includes personal messages; "Social," for emails from Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and similar sites; "Promotions," from companies trying to sell you something (like Groupon and LivingSocial); "Updates," for order confirmations, receipts, and bills; and "Forums," for mailing list and discussion board emails. Anything that Google can't figure out, it puts in "Primary."

Google realized a while back that if they could automatically detect spam, they could use similar techniques for classifying important emails. So they introduced "Priority Inbox," in which they placed yellow markers next to messages they thought should stand out. This new feature is the next logical step.

The tabs let you see at a glance how many new messages you have in each category. If you don't like the category Gmail assigned to a particular message, just drag it onto a different tab to train Gmail to do better next time. You can disable or re-enable the tabs by clicking on the gear icon in the upper right of the Inbox and selecting "Configure Inbox." If you don't see that option yet, you will in the next few weeks.

See the Google announcement at http://bit.ly/112QgXnor read their help page at http://bit.ly/13wx2ZTfor more information.

The new categories are great for organizing your email, but once you open a message in Gmail, there's still room for improvement. That's where Rapportive (rapportive.com) comes in. It's especially helpful if you get many personal emails and like to connect with friends or co-workers on social media sites.

Rapportive gives you "rich contact profiles right inside Gmail." It's a browser add-on that works with Firefox, Safari, and Chrome, and replaces the ads to the right of your email messages with useful information about the person who sent the email. (You might have seen a similar feature in recent versions of Outlook.) If you give Rapportive permission to connect to your Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn accounts, it will show you even more.

Open an email from a friend or business associate, for example, and the tool might show you their picture, location, and job title in the upper right of the Gmail window. If they're on Twitter, you will see a list of recent tweets or an option to follow them. Rapportive provides a button for connecting with them on Facebook. If you're already Facebook friends, it will show you their recent updates and let you comment on their wall directly from within Gmail.

Depending on how active the sender is, Rapportive might show even more links, giving you one-click access to their LinkedIn, Google+, Flickr, or blog pages. It even provides a field where you can type private notes for yourself about the person who sent the email.

So get off the couch, clean yourself up, and go tell your longsuffering wife about how great these new email enhancers are. And then maybe, just maybe, Gmail will open up its new tabs and categories so you don't feel left out.

When the PropellerHeads at Data Directions aren't busy with their IT projects, they love to answer questions on business or consumer technology. Email them to questions@askthepropellerheads.com or contact us at Data Directions Inc., 8510 Bell Creek Road, Mechanicsville, VA 23116. Visit our website at www.askthepropellerheads.com.