We will start off with FreeLayouts. When you arrive at their site you will see templates for normal websites, blogs, as well as MySpace. Click on MySpace Layouts in the main navigation menu and then you will see more specific sections.

The sections are CSS< XHTML, 2 Column, Fixed Width and eleven different colors as you can see below from the screenshot.

Here are some of the free MySpace templates that were displayed on the homepage while I was checking it out. Notice a lot of themes surrounding holidays.  Valentines Day that just passed and St. Patrick’s Day which is coming up.

You can click on preview to see a close up view of what the template really looks like. That will bring up this window:

You can click on the Get Code button to retrieve the code you will need to integrate the template like so:

Simply highlight the code and paste it into your About Me section of your MySpace profile to get started. I clicked on the box, hit control A to select all of it, and then control C to copy it and finally control V to paste it where it needs to go.

You also have the option of setting up an account and creating favorites that you can refer back to.

The next website for free MySpace templates we will be looking at is called MySpaceLibrary.

I scrolled down and chose layouts and started browsing around what they had to offer.

Looking around they have a little something for everyone. I found sports templates, music templates, geeky templates…seriously if you use MySpace you will be able to find something here!

After finding the template that you like, click on the link below it that says Click to view large and get MySpace codes.

That will take you to this page:

Just like before, if you want to use it copy the code and paste it into your About Us page on MySpace. To view the template click on the preview button below the picture of the image. That will show it to you like this:

The last site we will be checking out is called MySpaceSkins.

Scroll down when you get to the site and you will see the templates. The first section is called Girly MySpace Layouts followed by grunge, fashion and beach layouts as you can see below:

Click on one of the layouts or on a More [Category] MySpace Layouts button to see more related layouts. After selecting a layout you will see something that looks like this:

You can grab the layout code as we have before for the other sites but here we have some other choices like customizing the layout with their online MySpace profile editor.

or adding a custom Google search box on the page.

If you have other sites and resources hook us up and leave the URLs in the comments!

But I do recognize that a huge part of the younger population are into Myspace and that is why I will be running down 6 really cool Widgets for your MySpace page.

Aibek covered a huge amount of additions, widgets and more for your MySpace page back in 2006 here.

The first widget I will cover is a game called Age of War. Learn the Art of war. Buy turrets, fight and evolve. This is an epic game and will bring people back to your page over and over again! I found this widget here at WidgetBox

To install the widget on MySpace your best bet is to grab the embed code and insert it where you want it like so:

The next widget is called My Flash Fetish and is a MySpace comment widget as you can see below:

There are lots of customizations to color and styling so you can make it fit your page. Click the get code button below the widget and choose “other” then copy the embed code and you are on your way to pasting it into your page.

Want more cool widgets for Myspace? Next, we have another MyFlashFetish widget that allows you to show how long you have been sober from drugs, alcohol or what have you. Visit this site and follow the directions and grab the embed code when you are done to post it on your MySpace page.

Alright now how about a count down widget to show how much time is left until your birthday? Check out this widget from Magic Widgets.

Fill in the data on top, change the colors and the background image. Your preview will appear above it. The message can also be dragged around to place it where you would like in the widget on this screen. Then you click get HTML code to get and insert your embed code.

I particularly thought this one was very cute and appropriately titled Stick Figure Family. You can set up yours from FreeFlashToys.

After editing mine looked like this:

Here is a good prank for your page. It is called Tic Tac Prank and in the author’s own words:

Haha… we love scaring people with good ‘ol pranks. That’s why we made TIC TAC SCARE. It’s one of the best ways to make your friends piss themselves, by playing a “harmless” game of tic tac toe. So put it on your profile and wait to hear your friends’ reactions. People even record the reactions on YouTube! Check it out.

Here is the URL to grab the code and below that is a YouTube video of a mom pranking her children with it! Bad mom!

So all in all, there are an infinite amount of widgets out there for whatever social network you use no matter if it is MySpace, a blog, or anywhere they will let you enter code!

Have you ever asked yourself, “How do I make a background on MySpace?” Well, today I’ll show you how to find, create, and use a custom background on your MySpace profile.

Your source image could be from your personal photo collection or some wallpaper made available for free download from a site like Customize.org, one of my favorite sites, Digital Blasphemy, or Google’s Image Search (we suggest using the Advanced Search to narrow it down to non-commercial-licensed content).

When selecting your image, keep your audience in mind. Does the image provide a pleasing pattern or illustrate a great moment? Will it distract from your profile’s content? Is it age-appropriate, considering your friends? These are all things to consider, as well as image size. If your image is larger than, say 1024 pixels in length, we suggest using a tool like Resizr or any image resizer to shrink the image down.

Rather than linking to the image as hosted elsewhere, it’s good etiquette to save a copy of the image and upload it to a free host such as PiccDrop, and also to give credit somewhere on your profile to the artist or photographer. For demonstration, I’ve chosen this photo by Tim Snell. Once you’ve uploaded your image to your host, make note of the image’s URL (copy it into Notepad) for future use.

Your next step varies based on what type of MySpace profile you’re using. There are two versions of your MySpace profile. If you’re a long-time user and haven’t switched, then you’re using Profile 1.0. Here’s how to determine what type of profile you’re using. When you login, click the “Edit Profile” link next to your MySpace URL. Then, select “Customize Profile.” On the next screen, your profile type will be displayed at the very top of the page.

If you’re using “Profile 1.0“, follow these directions: Hit your “back” button to go back to the original profile editor. Use this background generator with your image’s URL to create the HTML code, then copy that code into the profile editor’s “About Me” box. Save your changes and check your profile.

If you’ve upgraded your profile to “2.0“, the process is easier. First, select your basic theme. If you have a dark image like mine, for example, it’s important to pick a dark theme to start with. In your customize menu, click Advanced Edit, then Background, and then paste your image’s URL into the URL field. Publish your changes and check your profile.

If everything worked, you’ll have a custom background for your MySpace page to show off to your friends (my profile is here). Feel free to share in the comments about any profile-customization tips you may have. There’s more MySpacey goodness on MUO here.

I guess it’s because they want us to stay forever but sometimes you just really don’t like the site or maybe you are trying to clean up your accounts (because you have so many all over the net).

Whatever the reason may be, I’m sure you’ll find that this little cheat sheet will make deleting those unwanted accounts quick, easy and painless.

Yahoo

There are two ways to delete your Yahoo account. The first way is to totally abandon it for at least four months. Inactive Yahoo accounts are deactivated after four months so if you’re in no rush to get rid of it, you can simply stop using it.

The other way to delete your Yahoo account is to visit the Account Termination page.

• Log into your Yahoo account. If you’re already logged in you may have to re-enter your password just for verification purposes.
• Click here to get to the Account Termination page.

Facebook

Facebook offers two options. You can either deactivate your account or permanently delete it. Of course, the deactivation method is much easier to find than the permanent deletion option. One thing you should know is that if you deactivate your Facebook account, your profile information will still be saved such as your friends, photos, interests, etc. On the other hand, permanently deleting your account will remove all of your information from Facebook and nothing will be saved.

To deactivate your account:

• Hover your mouse over the Settings menu in the top right of any Facebook page and click on “Account Settings”.
• Click on the “Deactivate Account” link at the bottom of the page.

To permanently delete your account:

• Click on Help at the bottom of any Facebook page.
• Search for “delete account” in the search box underneath the Help Center heading.
• Click on the “I want to permanently delete my account” link and read the 2 paragraphs there.



• Click on the link at the end of the last paragraph, read what’s there and then click the “Submit” button.
• Click here for the easy route.

MySpace

MySpace makes things a little bit easier, no searching needed.

• Click on “My Account” in the top right corner of any MySpace page.
• Click on the “Account” link.
• Click on the “Cancel Account” link at the bottom of the page.
• Select the reason why you want to cancel your account, and then click the “Cancel My Account” button.
• Click here for the easy route.

Ning

One thing about Ning is that even when you delete your account, the content that you’ve added to any social networks you were a part of will remain on those networks. If you don’t want your content to remain, you’ll have to delete it yourself. An easy way to do that is to simply leave each network you belong to separately before deleting your actual Ning account.

In order to leave a social network on Ning:

• Sign into the network.
• Click on the “My Settings” link in the top of the right hand column.
• Click on the “Leave (Social Network Name Here)” link at the bottom of that page.

To leave the Ning network altogether you will have to contact Ning by clicking here. There is no option in the “I have a question about” menu for deleting an account so you will have to pick which one you think fits best.

MSN

Just like Yahoo there are two ways to delete your MSN account. You can either stop using your account for 30 days or delete it manually. After 30 days of non-use your MSN account will become inactive and after 90 days your passport will become inactive.

To manually delete your MSN account:

• Click on the little arrow next to your name in the top right corner of any Hotmail page.
• Click on the “View Your Account” menu option.
• Click on the “Close Account” link at the bottom of the page.
• Read the info, enter your password to verify your identity and then click on the “Yes” button.
• Click here for the easy route.

Twitter

Note: If there are issues with Twitter, the option to delete you account will be disabled and you’ll get an alert message like the one picture below. So, hopefully Twitter is in good shape if and when you try to delete your account.

• Click on the “Settings” link in the top right corner of any Twitter page.
• Click on the “Delete My Account” link at the bottom left side of the page.
• Confirm that you want to delete your account.
• Click here for the easy route.

FriendFeed

FriendFeed is another site that makes you do a little searching before being able to delete your account.

• Click on the “help” link at the bottom of any FriendFeed page.
• Click on the “Using FriendFeed” header to expand it.
• Click on the “How do I delete my account?” link which will be the last link under that section.
• Enter your password in the first box, type the word “delete” in the next box, enter the reason why you’re deleting your account in the last box.
• Click on the “Permanently delete my account” button.
• Click here for the easy route.

Jaiku

Jaiku has the account deletion option right where you’d expect it to be.

• Click on the “Settings” link in the top right of any Jaiku page.
• Click on the “Your Profile” link under the Account heading.
• Click on the “Want to delete your account?” link at the bottom of the page.
• Click on the “Goodbye Cruel World, Goodbye” button.
• Click here for the easy route.

If there are any other websites that we haven’t mentioned here, why don’t you tell us how to cancel an account on that site?

Image Credit : Gaudium De Lingua

With it being so easy to create and upload digital photos to the web, there are a lot of creative and innovative individuals out there who just know how to make you enjoy a lot of your worthless and not so worthless pictures. Something I just recently discovered, and surely will begin making the rounds via yours and my e-mail account, is WriteOnIt.

WriteOnIt is a fun way to have fun with your photos and create hilarious captions to pass around your e-mail and blog. Amongst the three sections on the site, you have caption creation, fake pictures and famous magazine covers for you to plaster your friends faces all over.

Create Funny Photo Captions

Caption creation lets you select amongst several WriteOnIt images with a blank slate for you to enter any words that you like. There are currently three dozen of funny photo captions to choose from. They include Einstein, Santa Claus and even a gravestone, all with the ability to create your creative caption for whomever or whatever you like.

Create Fake Photos

With creating your own fake photos, you can take any image you’ve taken yourself and upload it to a billboard, a mirror or a pencil drawing. After the image is uploaded, they’ll be instantly transformed into whatever you like, the aforementioned options, along with a couple of dozen more.

Make Fake Magazine Covers

Ability to make fake magazine covers may be the most fun part of WriteOnIt. Take images of just about anything applicable, and add them to Playboy, Playgirl, Time, Rolling Stone or Wired. Along with an image, you can even come up with your creative caption to add. You could definitely have some fun with this one. I’ve done my best to represent MakeUseOf on their future Wired cover.

Although WriteOnIt doesn’t have a lot of hidden treasures, its simplicity and ease of use make it a great place when you’d like to create something for a quick laugh. Whether you’re trying to poke some fun at a friend or make someone famous (or infamous) for a short period of time, this website should be one at the top of your list.

Go check out some of the latest entries, or maybe some of the more popular items. You’ll get a better idea of what fun there’s to be had.

What do you think? What other photo and art websites can you create a great laugh at?

As internet users gain more and more ways to communicate, they are looking for ways to centralize and bring things together. Fuser is one service that can help you keep your communications organized.

I first used Fuser about a year ago, and I must say I wasn’t impressed. I liked the concept, but the interface was frankly ugly and clunky, and I kept getting messages about my Java being out of date. In short, it was more trouble than it was worth. Recently, I decided to check back and see if anything had changed. It had, and it was definitely for the better. Fuser has a brand new interface that is far better than the old one, as well as some new features.

First, it should be understood that Fuser isn’t an email service, and it doesn’t provide you with a Fuser email address. For those of us overloaded with email accounts already, this is good news. Fuser is instead a communications dashboard that combines all your existing email addresses and social networking accounts together in one place. Signing up is extremely easy, as is adding all your accounts.

On your first login, you are greeted with a wizard that helps you add all your email and social networking accounts. It’s really easy, and you don’t have to worry about adding POP or IMAP settings for the most common email providers””Fuser does it for you. And for those of you who use email providers that don’t provide free POP or IMAP access, such as Yahoo or Hotmail, don’t worry about having to get a premium account; Fuser magically syncs them both ways with no problems.

Another interesting feature of Fuser is that it can synchronize folders across your email accounts. For example, if you create a folder in Fuser called “Family,” and you drag an email from Gmail and Yahoo into it, Fuser will automatically create a label called “Family” in Gmail and a “Family” folder in Yahoo and keep them in sync with each other. This feature might not appeal to everyone, but it is really useful for those who are serious about keeping everything centralized and in sync.

Also, Fuser has a built in conversation view, so if you’re a Gmail user, you won’t have to give up that feature if you start using Fuser.

In addition to your email accounts, you can also add your Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter accounts. The Twitter integration is one of my favorite Fuser features, and it has all the functions of the Twitter website. From Myspace and Facebook, Fuser syncs private messages and notifications. Unfortunately, you can’t see your news feed or post status updates””at least not yet.

In short, Fuser is a great way to bring all your email and social networking accounts together. It does just what it says it does, and does it well. While there are a few features I’d like to see and some small bugs here and there, Fuser shows a lot of promise. The Fuser team is very helpful and responsive, and they assure me many more great features are coming soon.

What about you? What features would you like to see? What services would you like to centralize?

In fact, I would not describe actionext as a music discovery site. It’s different and maybe even better than that. I would say it’s a music lyrics search engine. You don’t have to listen to random tracks based on a pattern you seem to enjoy. Rather you can search for what you like yourself and create a custom music playlist. Additionally, actionext offers lyrics that anyone can edit in a wiki-like manner. Dive in to see more…

I know, there are other music search engines. However, this is the best I have seen in a long time!

Without signing up you can go ahead and search for artists or songs, browse lists of artists from 0-9 and A-Z, pick a featured album from the frontpage or browse the Top 100 list.

The best thing is that while you’re looking for music and adding tunes, the music player will stay with you and you can listen to what you have collected so far continuously, with only minor interruptions to to page loads.

A search will usually return a long list of results. The quality of songs greatly varies, the volume is not equalized, some songs are live recordings, others are album versions. You can’t necessarily tell the quality by the title the creator gave the song, so of course you can test play tunes before adding them to your playlist. Just click the play instead of the plus button.

Results always come back with two rows. On the left are the audio tunes and on the right you’ll see available lyrics. This is where the wiki-like system comes into play as you can edit the lyrics and submit your changes for review.

As you see you can download tracks and get them as ringtones. But don’t get too excited, both links will take you to services that will charge you for the favor.

To save and keep your playlist, you have to sign up. From there you can copy the code and share it through your website, blog or even myspace profile. That’s right, you can easily add actiontext music player with your playlist in it to your Myspace or other social networking profile. The code will be available when you save the playlist and at the bottom of the page when you’re playing it.

Interestingly, playlists can only be deleted when they’re open. You’ll see a “Delete this playlist” link in the top left above the player. A delete button next to each playlist in the “My Playlists” section would certainly be more comfortable. Also I’m not sure whether the amount of playlists you can create is limited. For this test I made 20. That’s plenty and the site probably allows a lot more.

Here for example is a playlist of artists I have seen live during the past two years. Not all of them, just the best of course.

What is your impression? Is it worthwhile? Are you gonna share some songs with us?

So prepare to be surprised by Scrapboy, a desktop client for some of the popular social networks like Facebook, Orkut, and MySpace.

Common sense says that ‘social networking’ is synonymous with the web. But a little jiggling of the senses and a desktop app does have a certain appeal.

The first benefit that comes to mind is that Scrapboy helps to provide a common interface to handle multiple sites. No more logging in individually.

I downloaded and configured Scrapboy for my Facebook and Orkut accounts (I don’t have a presence in MySpace).  I then dug in and took a closer look at whether Scrapboy is worth a shout.

Logging into Facebook

I must say I really liked the interface – clean cut and cute. The log-in is straight through with the respective social accounts. For instance, as soon as I logged into my Facebook account, the social network asked for my permission to let Scrapboy access my data. With a yes, a small floating slideshow featured the profile pics of my circle of friends.

From the Scrapboy chat box, you can see your wall posts, check your inbox, view your pokes, events and check out your groups. Checking the inbox and your groups though involves logging into Facebook through the browser.

Now I could use this single window to access my circle of friends simultaneously. Chatting with Jane, spying on John’s wall posts and looking at Jim’s tagged photos – all at the same time!

Scrapboy not only transforms social networking into a chat box-like environment, but also takes it a bit further”¦

• Instant notifications when friends sign-in or when they send a message or receive news.

• Go offline into a stealth state.

• Use Facebook emoticons to add “˜emotion’ to your messages.

• See what you were gabbing about with saved history.

• Be peer to peer and exchange files with friends who have their own Scrapboy installed.

• Setting personal preferences for the notifications (pokes, group invites, new photos etc) thus allowing for selective control.

• Instant check of their profile and current status.

• A tiny checkmark in the chat window also reminds friends that the user is typing and hasn’t fallen asleep on the keyboard.

• View photos in a slideshow.

• Also view wall posts, including the deleted ones on your friends’ walls.

• Scrapboy serves you reminders about a particular event. Get reminded when you want with the option of a time function. Facebook events are automatically stored in an event viewer.

• Behind a proxy server? Configure it to work seamlessly with the settings in the options tab.

Logging into Google Orkut”¦

Scrapboy’s other face is its sync with Google Orkut. The interface shows your own and your friends’ scraps. The interface allows you to format and post your scraps, although it does not allow you to delete any offending scraps you might receive or send. Through the interface you can subscribe to the friend updates you want thus filtering the alerts you receive. You can also view your pals – by who is online, who visited you recently or who has an upcoming birthday, etc. Scrapboy allows you to open multiple windows for your friends and view their scraps and photos at the same time.

Scrapboy has its own take on privacy (or lack of it for your friends). You get notified whenever someone deletes a scrap or a photo”¦and more, you can see it too.

An end critique

Here is where I noticed a flaw in the program. If I logged in directly into Facebook and/or Orkut, instead of using Scrapboy and deleted my scraps or checked my events, Scrapboy did not reflect those updates and deletions.  An inability to update my status message also was a bit irksome.

But”¦the final note

Scrapboy did a good job of bringing all my fairly large collection of friends from two social networks into a single window. It also saved me the bother of manually logging into their “˜online’ lives through its frequent alerts. If I have to pick one standout feature over all the others, it would have to be the chat-styled interface.

Call Scrapboy a marriage of instant messaging to scrapping and of course, poking.

Scrapboy is a 7.6 MB download compatible with versions of Windows.

Have you tried Scrapboy for yourself? Let us know what you think with a scrap in the comments.

When you surf around the web long enough, it will happen. It’s just a matter of time. Sooner or later you’ll arrive on this God awful website that’ll make you scream out in terror and hide beneath your desk. For some reason or another, some people just can’t grasp the concept of design.

User, meet Stylish. Stylish is a Firefox add-on. It’ll enhance your browser experience. Stylish uses simple, user-submitted CSS scripts (similar to Greasemonkey) to tweak the looks of certain websites.

Today we’re going to take a look at the four best Stylish scripts around.

1. Gmail Redesigned v2.0

If a webpage looks bad, we can make it look good. If it looks good, we can make it look better. Globex Designs released Gmail Redesigned, which will give your Gmail a slick dark look. It also visually tweaks all popular Google services. The Google Redesigned add-on was released a few weeks ago. Upon writing this article, Gmail and Google calendar got the treatment.

2. Grey/Olive v2 Last.fm

Going to Last.fm, I feel like I’m walking into McDonalds; only without the burgers. I don’t like the bright red. It gives a ‘do what you’ve got to do and get out of here’ message.

Grey/OIive v2 Last.fm gives Last.fm a nice and calm grey-green look.

3. Google Web Search – dark blue redesign (vC)

This one gives your Google Web Search a slick blue look. Everyone will ask why Google looks so cool; perhaps you can try the NASA story.

This style is also available in Dark Grey for both Google Web Search and Google Image Search.

4. MySpace – Updated Home Rearranged

I’m not a fan of MySpace. But because we can’t keep some of you away from it anyway, we can at least try to contain the damage. This style fixes a lot of things. It rids the complete site of ads and rearranges the items on your MySpace homepage, making it a lot more compact and usable.

Installing scripts

Installing these scripts is very simple. You just install Stylish, find a script online (or make one yourself) and install it by right-clicking on the Stylish icon at the bottom of your browser.

Are you good with CSS? Why don’t you try making a style for Make Use Of? Be the first! Let us know your favorite Stylish scripts in the comments.

(By) Simon is a student from Belgium who wastes his time relaxing, watching anime and surfing the net. He would tell you to check out his blog, only he doesn’t have one yet!