Show HN: Our Startup's 404 Page Currently Most Popular On Site (web only) | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: Our Startup's 404 Page Currently Most Popular On Site (web only)

workfu.com

51 pointshusky21 comments

We built this as a bit of fun but it's been getting some great responses on Twitter

For a moment, I thought it was going to print the lyrics for the "Hello" song, by Lionel Richie.. that would've been hilarious..

Hello, is it me you're looking for?

'Cause I wonder where you are

And I wonder what you do

Are you somewhere feeling lonely or is someone loving you?

Tell me how to win your heart

For I haven't got a clue

But let me start by saying I love you

Yeah it's a reference to this wonderful song ;-)

Imagine my disappointment when I got this response:

"Searching:\> Sorry I couldn't find anything for 'Lionel Richie'. Try again."

Opportunity for an easter egg?

I tried 'Lionel' which took me to 'Lionel Rudaz'.

You guys are funny ;-)

While quirky 404 pages like these are a nice change from the plain boring old 404 messages, I wonder if a lot of sites are losing visitors because of 404 pages like these. Has anybody got any stats about how many people see a 404 and never visit the site again?

What I would like a 404 page to do would be something like this: Take the example of a content site, which has recently moved some pages around. If I land on the old URL which was linked in some other post, I would like to be transparently redirected to the new one rather than have a 404 thrown in my face. Similarly, if the link is a typo and no such page actually exists, it would be nice if the site tries to 'guess' where I want to go based on the URL and then provide a list of suggestions.

I'm not sure, but I have a notification setup so that I get an email whenever a 404 is discovered. I frequently review the notifications and try to redirect them to the right place.

Annoyingly, most of the 404's seem to be bots looking for known flaws in WordPress, Drupal, PHPMyAdmin etc.

There are some fuzzy matching plugins for 404 handling, like Apache's mod_speling (note the missing l).

This 404 page is making me rack my brain to think of a good implementation for a green-screen question/response UI across a whole site.

Time to pull out my box of Apple ][ diskettes and find a program that could be reborn as a web site.

I've done something of a project euler like math problem based site using jquery-console.

[1] is a screenshot of it using Wolfram Alpha to answer questions. The rest of the browsing is mostly unix-like, in similarity to unix.xkcd.com

[2] is it showing off its latex support [1]: http://imgur.com/v4GUH [2]: http://imgur.com/MWCXe

I like a brazilian 404 page. They implemented a hangman game. http://www.mestreseo.com.br/404

Is this supposed to be interactive? Because it's not, on Firefox 7.0.1 (doesn't respond to [Y]es [N]o.

wow I really like it. We should have implemented this 404 for our startup http://www.kaanzi.com/ . Being a command prompt for the web, something like this would have blended in nicely.

Anyway, I love the concept. I think the app workfu is very interesting too. Best wishes!

What can "i look for" people? Didn't get that

Until there pretty good impression :)

At the moment profiles aren't publicly listed so we are not offering an open search. if you know the name of a user you can search them though...

The 404 is web only btw

What is the rest? I.e. how can one access this, which to me seems to be a site on the Web (a "web site", to many), other than "on the web"? I'm feeling my age, here. :|

If it makes you feel better I'm part of Generation Y and I'm not sure where else one would see a 404 besides on a "website".

Sometimes I go to my nightstand and my phone isn't there, "Four, Oh Four!" Other times I get there, but I hear from downstairs, "Three Oh Two, dear, it's down here on the coffee table." I run downstairs and grab it, relieved, "OK!"

I guess what I'm trying to say is that we couldn't fully implement this on mobile due to keyboard restrictions..

Then you mean desktop, not web.

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