Love it or hate it, social networking is here to stay. Facebook is the biggest social website but it has a clunky interface that’s riddled with quirks. Nevertheless, persuading its 750 million users to move elsewhere will be a gargantuan task.

Recently launched but already boasting a phenomenal 20 million users, Google+ is the search giant’s latest attempt to put its stamp on social networking. It implements many of the improvements suggested by users of Facebook and Twitter, boasts a vastly superior interface and introduces the concept of separating your contacts into different social circles so you can control who sees what about you. For example, you can share a risque photo of a stag weekend with your friends, but keep it from your work and family circles.

With group video chatting, and unlimited photo and video storage (as long as photos are smaller than 2,048 by 2,048 pixels, and videos shorter than 15 minutes), there’s a lot of reasons why Google+ could be the next big thing.

Lets try Google Plus, 10 step to know how to use Google Plus

1. The first thing to do is take control of your profile. Click the Profile button, (1) select About (2) and Edit Profile. (3) Select an option and type a description. (4) Click the down arrow to control who can see it, then Save.

2. Circles are the key element of Google+. Click the Circles button (1) to manage them. You can create a new circle by dragging a contact’s tile (2) to the grey circle, (3) or hover your mouse over it and click ‘Create circle’.

3. Hover your mouse over a circle to see who’s in it. (1) Click the circle for more options. You can rename it, (2) delete it (3) or add a new person. (4) To see the Circle members’ updates, click ‘View stream for this circle’. (5) Click ‘View circle in tab’ to create a permanent link to it. (6)

4. To find new people to link to, select ‘People who’ve added you’ (1) or ‘Find and invite’, (2) Your Gmail contacts will already be listed, as will Google’s ‘friends of friends’ suggestions. Or click ‘Add a new person’ and type a name or email to find unlisted people. (3)

5. You may find yourself being followed by people you don’t know, If you don’t reciprocate by putting them in one of your circles, they will only be able to see your public posts. See if they’re worth following back by clicking Incoming. (1)

6. Likewise, if you’re interested in someone else’s public posts, don’t be shy of putting them in your Following circle. (1) You can then read their public posts (2) and comment on them (3) if you wish.

7. When you post a message on Google+, you can choose who sees it. Type your message (1) and click ‘+ Add more people’. (2) Choose from circles or wider groups.  (3) Blue buttons (4) indicate that the group is controlled by you. Green buttons (5) may be visible to strangers.

8. Once published, you can further control your message from the drop-down menu on the right.  (1) You can edit and delete the post  (2) and ‘Disable comments’. (3) ‘Disable reshare’  (4) removes the Share link  (5) so people can’t pass it on.

9. As well as status updates, you can drag and drop photos and videos into the Stream box. Cut and paste a link from a website and Google+ will collect a synopsis of information from the site.  (1) You can choose an appropriate picture with the arrows. (2)

10. Click your name, (1) then ‘Account settings’  (2) and Google+.  (3) Phone alerts aren’t available to UK members yet, but you can select email notification for a range of options. Scroll down and you can also change the default circles that appear when you post.

If you’ve got a webcam, try Google+ Hangouts, which lets you hold a video conference with the people in your circles. Click the green ‘Start a hangout’ button and install the software. Choose a circle and Google+ will send them a message. If you want a private chat, make a special circle with one person in it. The main screen switches to whoever is talking, or you can watch YouTube together.