That article doesn't really say that 404 pages should be useful. Their use is to tell the user that the page doesn't exist. As long as it communicates that in a way that users can understand (and returned a HTTP 404) it has done it's job.
There was a fad for a little while around 2000 where people tried to make 404 pages which would "guess" which page you wanted to visit, search it, or make suggestions.
Not only did these projects leave gaping security holes in many sites but they also seem to confuse many users more than if they had just been a roadblock (often resulting in users going around in circles).
Plus, as another comment said, even Google doesn't follow Google's advice.
I usually perform a search using the data I can get from the URL. I usually get a category and some keyword (from the clean title URLs) so I can indicate that there's a 404 and then offer some related results doing a search.
Now, it's a perfect 404 page (Status 404 with simple message body, the game is injected by JS, so it's not registered by any crawlers.) For a better understanding, things that might not be clear for any direct-linked visitors:
Most of the site's content is about classic computing in one way or the other. Also a main field of activity is in interactive web content (including a tradition in porting classic arcade games to JS). So it did make sense to offer an interactive error page, which is perfectly in tune with the main theme of the site. (So it's a perfect check for any item on the check list in the link referred to above.) Also it was meant as a humorous comment on interactivity, as you may either watch the interfering error being destructed to ruins (where the invaders would represent the site and the tank the user) or you could get even hands-on by "reaching trough" the error and interacting with the site (by shooting at it for being so dumb and lazy and not providing the right document).
Also, the error page isn't exactly new, in fact it is as of March 2012. (Which is still quite fresh, considering that the design of the main pages is as of 1999. Yes, I'm a bit lazy with this. But at least there's a current error page.)
[Edit] Just for info: An extra set of touch controls is injected, if a touch-enabled device is detected (supporting webkit/blink-style events or the ms-pointer-API as used by IE10). – For the benefit of SmartPhone- and tablet-users.
I'm guessing there's an engineer at Google responding to an alert of thousands of users across the world all attempting to load the same non-existent page on their servers.
Did you ever fly a kite in bed?
Did you ever walk with ten cats on your head?
Did you ever milk this kind of cow?
Well, we can do it. We know how.
If you never did, you should.
These things are fun and fun is good.
The 404 page on scri.ch (drawing tool I made with a friend) is a drawing like any other on the website (you can draw on it, save it again, etc.), except the HTTP status: http://scri.ch/-
This is cool, but it badly needs an erase feature. Also, setting a title/permalink for the finished drawing would be nice. Any plans to develop it more?
Thanks! Feel free to submit an issue [1], everything can be discussed, but the absence of an erasing tool (or any other tool) is a strong feature for us and our users.
Ah, it's intentionally minimalist. That's cool too. Perhaps a small, unobtrusive link to about.scri.ch to explain the philosophy would be in order then.
I cannot see it. Might be an issue this side then. I see the asteroids floating around, and if I hit it I see a ship and can play an asteroids-like game.
It's just before you hit the space bar to begin playing the game, "404 Error! Press space to start," then it goes away. I missed it too until I saw your comment, then I went back and checked.
You might end up getting more traffic to your 404 pages than your site. I just spent 5 minutes on the 404 page, haven't seen the contents of the actual site yet.
I think I've picked a nice combination of utility and aesthetics. The game on masswerk.at's 404 page is pretty cool, but I could see it being a little distracting or confusing for some users.
This seems to be done with divs and dom manipulation. Anyone know why they didn't use HTML5 canvas for this? I'm curious because I'm currently making an HTML5 canvas game.
Sure, that's a valid reason. I guess I should have stated the intent of my question: Am I going down a bad path by trying to make my game with canvas when I could be doing it with a bunch of divs like this page?
For writing a new game I'd go Canvas generally. It will perform far better in many cases, will often be easier to develop/maintain, and supporting legacy IE and older mobile browsers is just going to drain your time for little gain.
Of course your target audience, if you have a more specific market in mind, may make another decision for you!
Meh, it's novel for about 10 seconds... But seriously, did you complete the level? I dabbled with it for about 10 seconds and then realized how long it would take and lost interest.
In fact they drop down a row after some time and every time a row of invaders has been cleared. But they are to stay above the error code by design (the code always being the center of the action).
Problem is that when you get a 404, you're typically expecting something else. A game isn't going to change your entire plan and distract you for 10 minutes. Wait.. this is the internet, that is what will happen! Genius!
How to win. Get in the middle of the 0 and drill a small hole with your own missiles up through the 0. From now on you will be safe and most of your shots initially will hit an invader. Once you get down to the last one it is a matter of timing.
If they break through the 0 and you are in danger, move under another safer part and drill a hole again.
http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&ans...