20 creative and inventive '404' website error pages
404 pages are typically boring and dull, or fall down to your browser just showing you an error message. K International plays around with this and adds a little humour to your day, even if you have stumbled into the Web's abyss.
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Web designer Alessio Atzeni goes one step further by creating a full-screen cracked-screen effect. While it's more effective on old-school CRT monitors, the graphics are impressive and remains one of the simplest but most visually impressive error pages seen.
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Even Apple has a sense of humour, it seems. In a rare display of emotion, it seems, when iCloud cannot find the page you are looking for, it displays a confused-looking cloud graphic that adds a human side to the technology super-giant.
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The Onion, the satirical news website, doesn't offer much but in keeping with its general website vibe, it jokingly tells you that you have "damaged the inter-net." At least it gives you a get-out clause by way of a search box, allowing you to continue your search for what you were looking for.
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In what appears to look like a snippet of a job advertisement in a newspaper, Limpfish's ad is "desperately seeking HTML" in a simple, yet effective 404 page that will likely keep the user on the page longer than they would on other
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In what is self-described as the "most awkward 404 page" on the Internet, Steve Lambert goes one step further by embedding a video of him seemingly talking to the person who landed on the missing page. Speakers or headphones required: it certainly is cringeworthy, but a hilarious site filler nonetheless.
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Chris Jennings, a web designer and developer, takes his 404 page one step further by depicting a cartoon Grim Reaper on his site's error pages, while hinting that the fictional deathly character will "see you soon"; an inevitability for everyone who stumbles on a broken link on his site.
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Accessing a missing page or a broken link on Gog.com leads to a rip in the space-time continuum. Revealed behind a peeled back web-'page' is another galaxy. But just in case the joke wasn't understood, a small cartoon bear explains the situation -- and even offers the user a chance to report the error to the website administrators.
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Hoppermagic spins its entire brand image around the mere bunny rabbit. In fitting with the site's theme, website visitors are told that the missing page is because the "rabbits have been nibbling the cables again," injecting a needed sense of humour in what would otherwise be a boring site error page.
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A site now famed for its 404 error page, Mark Dijkstra's website is currently offline, but still displays a prominent link to its 404 page. Depicted is the common joke, "I went here, and all I got was this lousy..." -- with in this case being a website error message. At least you can still reach him on Twitter though.
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Lego is designed to be fun for all ages. In fitting with the rest of the website along with the company's friendly ethos, even when kiddlywinks access a broken link on the site, they will be presented with a giant Lego man with two cables unplugged, leading to the -- bless them -- gullible kids (and some gullible adults, too) thinking it was the Lego man himself who broke the site.
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404 pages are historically boring, but what if you were presented with the complete opposite? Blue Fountain Media takes it one step further by developing specifically for its broken Web pages a '404'-styled game of Pacman. Website visitors may end up spending more time on the error page than the rest of the site.
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Nosh also takes the video approach too, but really goes all-out in its efforts. This video has been watched over 58,000 times alone, in what will eventually be an award-winning video for what it's for. Depicted is two Special Forces soldiers 'hunting' down the missing pages -- at all costs.
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Foradian built a 'hypercube' that acts as the zero in the '404' message. Built in HTML5, websites visitors can be blown away by the multi-dimensional cube that can be viewed from every angle possible. Certainly one of the most impressive Website error pages on the Internet.
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Similar to ripping open a hole in the space-time continuum, CSS-Tricks offers a 'peek' into the code that runs the site with a static image. Simply put, it looks as though is peeking into the behind-the-scenes code that makes the website work; a fitting concept for a website design community.
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Gaming network DDZ quite frankly took the mick by collecting every "404" price-sign from gas stations around the United States and collating them on one page. It goes that one step further in reiterating to 404-aware visitors that this page signifies a missing page.
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Seecoy is one of those websites you're not quite sure what its purpose is. That said, if you happen to stumble on a page that isn't there, one appears to be looking at a static-ridden television set with the channel set to "404". Slight warning: it will fuzz with your eyes after a few seconds.
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Taking goofy to the extreme, Blippy really lays it on with its lush 404 meadow and its dressed-up-unicorn. "Good thing unicorns are magical," the shopping-sharing site says on its broken link page. Not hugely inventive, but still likely to warm the cockles of your heart.
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South Park goes the extra mile by creating mini-memes for its error pages. For those who saw the 'Royal Pudding' episode, they'll get this for sure. That said, the images rotate so if you refresh the broken page, you'll get a new South Park-inspired 404 error
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Reddit, one of the most popular news-sharing sites on the web, follows South Park's style and rotates between different 404-related images.
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