Blog - Page 404

The big news of the day is that Tumblr (a popular free blogging site) now has it's own downtime pag (Tumbeast), similar to the Twitter Fail Whale, and the Plurk Creatures.

In August, we talked about making your 404 page work for you - this is the page visitors land on if they click on a broken link to your site.  The downtime page however, is there to address DDOS attacks, over-loaded servers, or downtime due to maintenance or upgrades.  It lets visitors know that they've reached the right place, and that the problem is not with their computer or their internet service provider (ISP).

On most websites, visitors just get a server a server error from their ISP.  The downtime page however, seems to be a growing trend.  Sites like Google's Gmail have been using  them for a long time, as have the social networks.

Grooveshark has a funny one, and, perhaps the right idea - when caught in downtime blame it on the Chinese.

Jennifer Pointer (e-mail) is in Tulsa, OK. She promotes a simple, a low-tech approach to effective online profile management, search engine optimization and social networking. 
 

The "404 page," is the page that is displayed on a website when someone clicks on an invalid URL or a broken link.  All it usually says (and really needs to say) is "oops," or that the page you're looking for is not found (that doesn't actually make sense, but that's what  lot of them say).

If you're like CNET, you can be nice to your readers, and add a search screen, and of course add some Google ads (because EVERYONE loves to click on ads when they're already irritated about clicking on a broken link, right?). 

You can also make your 404 page into something similar to a flash page, which gives your reader options for finding what they're looking for on your site, like we've done here at WebRev, and like uxbooth.com has done (see their tips for making your own, here).

You could go the funny route, too. Google Images has literally hundreds of great (well, some are great) examples, here.  Here is one of my personal favorites, a post from ICHC, which is usually about cats, but this is priceless:

Also see:

• MUO: How to Make a Great 404 Error Page & 10 Examples
• Hongkiat: 60 Really Cool and Creative Error 404 pages
• Digital Bus Stop: Great 404 Pages
• CSS-Tricks: 404 Best Practices
• SEW: Common Problems with 404 Error Pages

Jennifer Pointer (e-mail) is in Tulsa, OK. She promotes a simple, a low-tech approach to effective online profile management, search engine optimization and social networking.