Survey of 404 Error Pages For Selected Web Sites

The following table gives a summary of 404 error pages for selected Web sites for participants on the "QA For Web Sites" workshop held prior to the ILI 2004 Conference.

A summary of the column headings is given below.

Web Site: Name of college and link to Web site
Tailored 404 Page?: Y if Web site appear to have a tailored 404 page, and does not use the server default
Description: Brief comments on the 404 page
Rating *-****: * - simple 404 page with little, if any branding
** - 404 page with some elements of branding, navigational bars, help information, etc.
*** - sophisticated 404 page which is fully branded and contains navigational bars, help information, etc.
**** - sophisticated 404 page with additional functionality, such as personalisation.
Try It: View the project 404 page

The ratings have an element of subjectivity. To help in interpreting their meaning additional information is given below.

**Table : Explanation Of Ratings**
Rating	Description	Example
-	Server default message.
*	May mention name of the Web site but has little or no branding, navigational bars or help information.
**	Has some elements of branding, navigational bars or help information, but not all.
***	Has all elements of branding, navigational bars and help information.
****	Has all elements of branding, navigational bars and help information. In addition provides additional functionality, such as personalised information, information on referrer field, etc.

**Table 1: 404 Survey Of Web Sites**
	Organisation	Tailored 404 Page?	Description	Rating -***	Try It
1	ILI 2004 Conference Web Site	Y	Error message, but no organisational details, branding or help	*	Check
2	Framley Museum (fictional)	Y	Photograph but no organisational details, branding or help	*	Check
3	Estrella Mountain Community College	Y	Branded and navigational bar, but slightly misleading message	**	Check
4	American University of Beirut	Y	Branded, navigational bar and helpful error messages	***	Check
5	NATO	N	Server default		Check
6	Public Service Commission (Possibly incorrect address)	Y	Branded but no navigation or help.	*	Check
7	education.au Limited	N	Server default		Check
8	National Library Board	N	Server default		Check
9	University Library of Oslo	Y	Branded and bilingual help information	**	Check
10	AFFRC	N	Server default		Check
11	Anglo American Corporation of South Africa

The information in the table was collected on 4^th October 2004.

Notes

Please note the following:

The online version of this page allows the latest findings to be obtained.