Under the materials button, there is no long a surface tab to which I can change it to say glass or diffuse. The menu I do have is
Preview
Diffuse
Specular
Shading
Transparency
Mirror
Subsurface Scatter - etc
How can I get my Surface tab back?
Use the appropriate render engine for the type of materials you want to use.
Change render engine from the drop down list at the top of the blender interface