Blooper Troopers
Droops, bloopers and what geeks, babies and whales have in common.
Coolness often comes down to how well you handle the uncool stuff that inevitably happens. On the intertubes, that stuff is known by one infamous, universally hated number: 404. Today, we look at those coolest error pages that manage to inject some irreverent fun into all the frustration.
SMASHING MAGAZINE
This lovable big droop extracts an “awww” from even the most cynical and web-raged of us, making us wanna hug him and tell him it’s okay.
GEEK SQUAD
Who can get mad at an awkward know-it-all geek? Okay, plenty of people. But this one aptly walks the fine line between know-it-all self-righteousness and it’s-all-in-good-fun self-derision.
MIXX
In terms of “personality,” Mixx has long been our favorite of the social bookmarking platforms. Their irreverent humor comes through here with both the clever pun and the sheer hilarity of the video.
TWITTER
Most of us have been hit with the dreaded “Twitter down” message. And, come SXSW time or another major live blogging event, we’ll no doubt be hit again. (And again. And again.) But nothing softens the “Grrr!” like a simple image of serene empathy. Bonus points for using pastels to dampen the reds and yellows you’re feeling.
LOOK IT’S ME
This one goes all the way with a flash animation. Watch this little guy as he jumps around, wiggles a reprimanding finger at you, then finally gives up on your obvious idiocy and stomps away.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
There you have it, a cool error page can make the difference between “ugh” and “heh,” and works wonders for fostering that elusive devil’s-in-the-details emotional connection we have with our favorite sites.
We’re actually quite disappointed with the lack of clever 404 pages in some of our favorite, should-know-better web dwellings. (Wired, PSFK and Creativity, we’re looking at you.)
- Get Stuff Done Feigned sobriety, unopposable thumbs, mornings done right, obsessive winking, sweet-talk for hire, how we’re always right, why red is better than apple, and whose rack we were ogling while almost getting arrested. ART OF THE HOW We’re inept. Or at least that’s what the recent surge in how-to sites and...
- We Feel Fine: An Almanac of Human Emotion Four years and 12 million feelings later, a book by visualization artist and storyteller Jonathan Harris that lives up to its grand expectations....
- Geek Mondays: LEGO Time How to relive childhood geekdom without the bullies, from the safety of your own computer. LEGO TIME We’ve decided to start a little something called Geek Mondays, where we explore the coolest, most fascinating, most diverse facets of geekdom. So, fittingly, we start out with a wired version of a...
- TED 2009 Highlights: Day 1 A cultural dialogue on sex, Bill Gates releases more bugs into the world, and lots of caffeine....
- Best of Election Season Innovation Private confessions, citizen voyeurism, a shot at redemption, why it pays to have famous friends, and how graphic design changed politics forever....
Yea, Custom 404’s are the way to go. It’s annoying if there isn’t one on a site.
I have one, but it’s lame.. I need to think of a clever, funny one too
Nice post. You can see more: http://www.danhbaweb20.com/?p=316
[...] 404 Pages – personalisadas [...]
[...] brainpickings Archivado en: Recopilaciones, 404, error, inspiracion, paginas de error, [...]
[...] Enlace: Cool error pages [...]
[...] Web sitelerinde en son tasarlanan k?s?mlar, alarm, te?ekkür, 404 ve mesaj sayfalar?d?r ve genelde çok özenilmez. Bu adreste özenle haz?rlanm?? 404 sayfalar?ndan örnekler mevcut. [...]
Cool Stuff!
I also like ; http://www.sanalbaskan.com/stop.html
Hediye, that’s pretty neat. It’s Turkish, right? What does the text say?
Yeap, it’s Turkish.
Sanal Baskan ( http://www.sanalbaskan.com ) is fantasy soccer game which awarded “The Best Game of Turkey” at altinorumcek.com
This page runs when server is too busy. And it means “Our stadium is overloaded. Please try it again later.”
Ohhh, gotcha. That’s awesome.
There seems to be a pretty strong design culture in Turkey. I came across this really cool blog (www.hasanyalcin.com) which seems to have a ton of great design resources. I wish I could understand more than just clicking on outbound links. So far, I’ve been trying to Google Translate it, ha, but it’s pathetic… Aw well.
Oh thanks..Great post..
[...] 404 graciosas, que a todos por sus comentarios les gustó. Hoy les acerco otra, en este caso de Brainpickins, que nos va a enseñar nuevamente, que cuando uno diseña un sitio, debe incluir este tipo de [...]
Hope this isn’t nit-picking, but the Twitter error screen is for their 503 error (service unavailable). Their 404 error is different.
Nit-pick away, Josh, no worries. Besides, while “404″ is the most universally recognized number associated with error pages, the article actually spotlights cool error pages of all types, so it’s all good.
[...] Blooper Troopers: Coolest 404 Error Pages | Brain Pickings Awesome 404 Error pages! Inspirational! (tags: inspirational webdesign design error inspiration list lists roundups page 404) [...]
[...] Blooper Troopers [...]
[...] 3. Top 5 Coolest 404 Error Pages [...]