Sign up to an account with Google+

To begin, launch a web browser and go to the Google+ home page. To use Google+ it’s necessary to have an account with Google. Those with Google accounts already – through Gmail or Youtube, for example – can skip ahead to Step 3; otherwise click the Create an account link to visit Google’s sign-up page.

Fill in the required information to create a Google account, providing an existing email address and choosing a password that’s hard to guess. Under the ‘Get started with Google+’ heading, fill in a location and date of birth before typing in the verification-word characters. Finally, click the ‘I accept. Create my account’ button to accept the terms of service and create an account. Google will send an account-verification email: click the link contained within this email to open an account-verification web page. From this web page, click the ‘Click here to continue’ link to return to the Google+ home page.

If the Google+ home page displays a red Sign in button, click it to go to the sign-in page, provide the correct email and password and click the blue Sign in button. Once signed in, the Google+ home page displays a box for creating a public profile. Add your name and gender but don’t worry about adding a photo at this stage. You may wish to click to remove the tick from the ‘Google may use my information to personalise content and ads on non-Google websites’ box to stop Google using your personal data to customise non-Google sites before clicking the Join button.

The next screen is used to add more information to your public profile. This is strictly optional, but we recommend providing a photo and at least selecting a country – this will make it easier for friends to locate and identify you. Click the Change profile photo link to open the Select profile photo window. To upload one from your computer, click the ‘Select a photo from your computer’ button, find a good photo and double-click it to begin the upload.

Once the photo has uploaded, crop it by dragging the corners of the selection or rotate it using the links on the right. It’s possible to make edits by clicking the Creative Kit link, which opens a more advanced set of tools. Once you’re happy with the photo, click the ‘Set as profile photo’ button to accept it and return to the public profile page, then click the Continue button.

The next screen provides an opportunity to find contacts from Yahoo or Hotmail who are already using Google+. If you’re a user of either site, click the Find people button to open a login window for the relevant service. In this window, clicking ‘What will I share?’ will explain what information will be exchanged. Click Connect to go ahead, or back out by clicking No Thanks.

Google+ will now suggest various famous or supposedly interesting people that it thinks you may wish to follow. Click the Add to circles link next to any suggestion that seems interesting to see that person’s public updates in Google+. We’ll explain more about the concept of circles in Steps 11 and 12, but we recommend adding any complete strangers to the ‘Following’ circle. There’s no obligation to follow any celebrities or strangers, or indeed anyone at all; click Finish to start using Google+.

After finishing these initial steps, Google+ will display the Home page, at the centre of which is a stream of posts from people who have been added to circles. Near the top of the website, to the right of the Google+ logo, are several icons for navigating: hover the mouse pointer over them to see an explanation of each. Click the Profile icon to view your profile page, complete with the information and photo you added during the sign-up process.

Adding more information to the profile will further help friends and colleagues to find and recognise you and may help you make new contacts with similar interests. However, it’s up to you how much information you fill in and how much of it is shared. Click the blue Edit Profile button to add more details, then click any field to update its contents. Click Save after editing a field to close it and return to the profile-editing view.

Google+ can detect profiles you may have on other social networks, such as Facebook. Click the Other profiles link on the right of the screen to review these and, if there are none, add them by clicking Manage connected accounts. In the new browser tab that this opens, click the Connect an account button, select the service from the list and add your account name or the web link to your profile. Click Add to save the change, close the web page to return to the Google+ profile, and click Save to close the Other profiles box.

Once the profile is complete, scroll back to the top of the page and click the Finished editing button. The next step is to add more people into circles. Click the Circles icon to view the default Google+ circles and any people they already contain. Click Find people to display suggestions based on your existing contacts on Google services. Alternatively, look for specific people by typing their name into the Type a name search box. Drag people into a circle to add them – it’s possible to add the same person to multiple circles if necessary. Remember you can visit Computeractive on Google+.

To create a new circle, drag one or more people to the grey ring on the left. Click Create circle to name it. Add more people if required, then click the ‘Create circle with...’ button to save the results. Google+ informs users when they’ve been added to someone else’s circles, but they are never told which one. They may choose to reciprocate, but don’t be offended if they don’t. When finished, click the Home icon to return to the home page.

With more people added to several circles, your Google+ home page should now contain many more posts than before. If there are too many, click the circles in the list on the left to see only the posts from members of that circle. The notification icon in the top right will turn red to indicate events, such as somebody adding you to their circles. Click it to view the details.

To post an update, click once in the ‘Share what’s new...’ box under the Stream heading. If necessary, use the icons to the right to add a photo, video, web link or location. Before posting, think about who needs to see the update and whether there are people who shouldn’t. When the post is finished and the permissions are set, click the Share button.