404 Pages: The Bad, the Good and the Poetic

Anne Zelenka | Monday, November 19, 2007 | 10:08 AM PT | 5 comments

Nearly one in four of the top 100 web sites in the U.S., including Google and YouTube, have 404 error pages largely devoid of any helpful information, in some cases not even the name of site you were (unsuccessfully) trying to access, according to Royal Pingdom.

GigaOM’s 404 error page met both of Royal Pingdom’s criteria for 404 goodness by being easily identifiable as a GigaOM page and offering comprehensive navigation help via a search box and a sitemap. For that we have WordPress.com to thank, which, as with so many other blog software services, includes a default site template, search box and navigation for 404 error pages.

There are plenty of fun 404 pages out there; the Area 404 page from the 404 Research Lab has found a bunch and grouped them into categories like swanky or poetic. I like The Motley Fool’s.

Motley Fool 404 page

What’s your favorite 404 page?

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