Why Doesn't My Web Site Fill My Screen?
 

If your web site doesn't completely fill your screen, it's because it was made to a specific size, rather than "100%". Some web developers don't like to make sites that fill 100% of the screen because it throws off their careful lay-out. Check out these screen shots of a web site created to fill 100% of the screen... and how they look at different monitor resolutions:

Web Site Built To Be 100% Of Screen:

All of the screen shots above were taken of the same web site at the same time, and yet you can see how the monitor resolution determines the lay-out.

So, many Web Developers create their sites to a specific pixel width, and leave the back-ground to be determined by the monitor size and resolution. The InterNIC standard is 800 pixels x 600 pixels... as it has been since the mid 1990s. Though monitors in the US are now shipped at a resolution of 1024 x 768 or higher, this is not the case all over the world. So, many Web Developers create sites of approximately 770 pixels wide to accommodate 800 pixel wide monitors without forcing the viewer to scroll left-to-right:

Web Site Built To Be 770 Pixels Wide:

To accommodate American viewers, some Web Developers are now building sites to 1000 pixels wide. This looks better at the higher resolutions, but those with older monitors must scroll left-to-right to see the whole site:

Web Site Built To Be 1000 Pixels Wide:

So, if you're looking at a site that doesn't fill your entire screen, it's probably because the site was built to a specific size, and that's NOT the way YOUR monitor is set.