Somehow, email has become the bane of our existence. Spam, scams, and advertisements clutter up our inbox, adding to the pain of the continuous onslaught of emails throughout the day. Until now, email has only been useful to aid in creating more projects and scheduling more meetings that take up more time. A new extension available for Chrome, Firefox, and RockMelt hopes to make email a little more useful, allowing users to use Twitter, Facebook, Groupon, and even Google+ right from their inbox.

This extension, PowerInbox, turns emails that previously only displayed data or links to external conversations into an interactive version of each social network. PowerInbox calls these features “PowerApps,” essentially running an app of each network inside your email. If you have been alerted to a new comment in a Facebook thread, you can see the thread almost exactly as it appears as Facebook, with the ability to add a comment directly in the email itself. Groupon users will not only see the Groupon deal with PowerInbox, but also up to date information about the deal, including how much time is left for the Groupon, as well as if the deal has tipped and how many people have bought it. Additionally, Twitter users can follow, tweet, and direct message other Twitter users, right from their email notifications.

The most groundbreaking feature of PowerInbox is the ability for users to use Google+ right from their inbox. As an API is not available yet for developers, this function is one of the first available from third-party services. Google+ users of PowerInbox can use the  Google+ PowerApp to add a person to their circles right inside an email. The app shows a short summary of the particular user associated with that email, and lets the user check off to which circles they’d like them to be added. For avid users of Google+, this will be a welcomed addition to the ways in which Google+ can be customized for more streamlined use.

Regardless of the social networks you may be affiliated with, PowerInbox is a must-have app for those who live inside their inbox. Check out and download PowerInbox from the Web site, and let us know what you think of the extension in the comments below.