With all of the social networking sites out there, it’s hard to tell which ones you should bother with and which is just another sloppy knockoff of tried and true favorites, such as Facebook.

Google+ is a social networking site offering a variety of features that are one of a kind. Here we’ve compiled 5 creative ways to use Google+ to your advantage.

Data Sharing and Backup

Most of us use our online profiles to share photos with friends and family by simply uploading media directly from our mobile devices, never giving much thought to the fact that, one day, that particular site that contains years worth of moments captured in time, may no longer be around.

With our busy, on-the-go, double espresso lifestyles, we often neglect to take the time to back up our photos before deleting them from our phones or digital cameras.
Google+ offers a solution with Google Takeout, allowing you to download your Google+ data directly to a file in your computer at home.

Huddle-Multi Person Texting

It’s 11 pm the night before your kid’s birthday and you’ve been so busy you completely forgot. Quick!, what do you do? Plan a last-minute surprise party, that’s what!
Rather than beginning the task of making reckless phone calls and leaving a trail of frantic voice mails, or worse, sending a slew of texts that will surely end in a disaster of people all showing up at the wrong times and/or places, hop on to Google+, and Huddle.
Huddle from Google+ is a helpful little texting tool that allows you to text with a whole gang of friends at once, avoiding the whole, he said, she said, mishmash of confusion that is quite common in the world of texting.

Not to mention the time it will save you from having to have the same text conversation again and again and again and…, well you get it.

 Hangout- Video Chats

You ever feel like video chatting with all of your friends, all at once? Yeah, me either. Chances are unless you’re a twelve-year-old girl, you would be hard pressed to ever find a need for this feature, but at least we know it’s there. That’s all that matters.

I’m talking about Hangout by Google+. It’s basically just video chat , like Skype, or any other such service. However with Hangout (much like Huddle), you can chat with multiple friends at the same time.

My guess, Google would not say no to a threesome. Hey, that actually gives me an idea for a good use for Hangout.

 Circles- Separate Contacts

So you’re planning a wedding and a bachelorette party? It is essential that you not confuse the guest lists. Google+ brings us Circles for situations exactly like this one. In a nutshell, Circles is a feature not too dissimilar to the Groups feature on Facebook.
Using Circles is very simple. In order to put someone into a particular “circle” of friends, you simply have to drag their photo across the screen to the desired circle. Done.
I probably don’t even have to tell you what makes this tool special, but I will. It allows you separate your friends into categories: the ones you tell things to and the ones you don’t.

 Sparks- What You’re Into, Watch & Read It

If updating your status and photos and multi-person video chatting and texting with your friends has not taken up all of your time Google+ Sparks should just about top you off.
Sparks let’s you tell it what you’re interested in and it, in turn, will send you things to watch, read, or share with others. You can search films or books and if you like what you get hit the “Add Interest” button and films or books you like will be added to your important subjects and interests queue.

Google may have tried, and failed, to work the social networking scene a couple of times before, but that didn’t stop them from trying again.  And as far as I can tell, with Google+ they have done a good job of adding a variety of new and integrated features to the game.