How MySpace works

Anybody with a computer can visit MySpace.com, and anybody can create a profile.

What's on a page MySpace users can include lots of information on their profiles in categories like "interests and personality," "background and lifestyle," "schools and companies."

Users interact by blogging, sending bulletins, and messaging between friends. They can also share their thoughts, moods, and favorite music. Users often view profiles of their friends and their friends' friends.

People also tend to surf for people in the same school or neighborhood. "Cool new people" are also showcased on the site -- this feature rotates links to member photos and profiles.Friends Making friends is at the core of what MySpace is all about.

If you want more access to information about another user, you can ask to be accepted as a "friend." Once you're a "friend," nothing is private -- including blog entries and bulletins. Accumulating friends on MySpace is a badge of honorTo sign up To find a MySpace profile, you need to sign up for your own profile. It's free and will only take about two minutes to do.

Open the website www.myspace.com. The site's homepage will open and you will see a form on the right hand side that says "Member Login." There are two buttons below the login form. Click on the bright orange one that says "Sign Up!"Fill out a form The next page that opens provides a form to fill out. Enter your information and come up with a password that is at least 6 letters long and includes at least one number or punctuation character.

Read MySpace's terms of service and privacy policy and check the box if you agree. Click on the orange 'sign up' box at the bottom of the page. The next page invites you to upload photos. You don't have to do this; just click on the link below that says 'skip for now.' This takes you to a page where you can invite friends to join MySpace too. Again, there's no need to do this if you don't want to. Scroll down and click on the 'skip for now' link.

Congratulations! You have arrived at your new MySpace profile. In the future you will be able to login from MySpace's home page and go directly to this page. Search From your profile you can search for any MySpace profile by clicking on the blue "Search" tab, the third of the choices across the top of the page.

There are several ways to search for and find a MySpace user. The easiest way to find someone is to search for their e-mail address in the "Find a Friend" search field (click on the e-mail option). If this doesn't work, or you don't know their e-mail, you can try entering the person's name into the search field.

You can also search for a person through their school by using the "Find a Classmate" search field. You can also search by "zip code." You can also find people through their friends. MySpace users link to each other's profiles. Contacting MySpace The very bottom of MySpace pages include links to Safety Tips for users and parents, as well as customer service answers to frequently asked questions and a contact form to report abuse.

Courtesy NBC News

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