How to Find that Perfect Background for MySpace

What makes the perfect MySpace page? Obviously, after choosing the correct theme music, page picture, top friends, and pictures for a slide show, the background is that element that, in similar fashion to The Dude's rug, really ties the page together. Rather than trying to review many individual MySpace sites, which could never be truly well researched and simultaneously interesting and of reasonable length, this article will address the specific techniques on specific sites that would benefit anyone in their quest for the ultimate background for MySpace.

The question then becomes, how do I acquire that perfect image (which, according to legend, is worth a thousands words) from a sea of otherwise mediocre and downright ugly background for Myspace? As powerful as Google is, the number of results it returns based on the query of "backgrounds for myspace " is staggering (about 1,400,000). However, the same query with advanced options such as specifying language of choice (English, in most cases) country of origin (the United States) and finally usage agreement (free to use, share, and modify, even commercially) helps bring the number of hits down by a factor of 10 (24,500). The last advanced search option is worth noting. If you are not a member of a band or other media industry, you may change your usage agreement to exclude the commercial options. However, this will increase your search results, possibly making that perfect background for Myspace that much more difficult to find.

The first hit that is brought up on such a search is everylayout.com. The first thing that is noticeable is that the number of categories is quite large. While seemingly positive at first, this may be a double-edged sword. Rather than having continuously narrower categories (think like folders on your hard drive) you only have these categories which may be too specific or too general, there's no way of controlling the results. Another drawback to the site can be found in the "Updates" section. The last update was posted on October 18, 2006. Any well maintained site should at least have postings within the last month. The more recent (and consistent) the updates, the better.

Hitting the "Back" button on my browser, and continuing down the first page of results from Google is disappointing. No relevant hits seem to be available. Conclusion: My search is too specific. By making my search more broad, I will generate more results, but those results may not be as tailored to what I'm looking for, requiring more legwork to find that background for my Myspace page. After altering the search to include any language, any country of origin, I press search again and hope for the best.

Hopeful, I click on the freemyspacebackgrounds.net link. Unfortunately, I am greeted by a page with an ugly background itself and broken image links throughout. Again, same problem with categories. The next link down the Google search, however, is much more promising. At myspacemaster.net, the user is met with an attractive-looking site, thumbnails in much better categories, and much more recent site updates. This is the type of page one should look for in consideration to their background for their Myspace page. Whether the end user considers it a positive or a negative attribute, myspacemaster.net also includes other Myspace tips and hacks including surveys, content generators, and layout tricks. So far, this has been the best site, with information not only relevant to the all important background, but also for the more technical aspects of a well maintained social network page.

The next well-designed page, wonderbackgrounds.com is less visually appealing than myspacemaster.net, but no less a champion of content. The site itself is well designed, the background images are well categorized, and there are a reasonable number of thumbnails per page (which saves on load time). In addition to providing less extra content than myspacemaster.net, wonderbackgrounds.com also loses points for using technical terms like "Pixel Background" which typical users may not understand.

The last site to be reviewed may be the final one that the persistent Myspace champion would need in their Batman-like utility belt of resources. Myspacetotal.com not only has a good design, well-planned categories, and recent updates, but also includes ratings on layouts, and sorting options based on those ratings. Previews of layouts are available. Options for content generation are made available. This is an all-encompassing site which should not be overlooked by any Myspace user.

Remember, this is not the definitive list of sites for backgrounds for Myspace pages. It is meant as a guide for those who wish to find the background which perfectly matches their personality. Relying too heavily on the popular sites may result in your page looking like everyone else's . Be creative in your search terms and advanced search options in Google. Be discerning in your judgment of the type of site from which you download your background for your Myspace page. This choice reflects on the type of Myspace user you would like to portray. So, like Indian Jones, make your choice wisely.