TL;DR

A standard web development approach where users are shown a 404 page when the content at a particular web address is not available, either because it doesn't exist or it has been moved.

WTF is a 404 page?

A 404 page is a web page that many website owners create to display in instances where content users are trying to load have been deleted or moved so will not display.

Obi Wan Kenobi performs a Jedi mind trick with a wave of his hand, convincing weak-minded Stormtroopers that these aren't the droids you're looking for.
Obi Wan Kenobi has convinced you this isn't the content you are looking for.

It's not quite a Jedi mind trick, but 404 pages are a standardised way of indicating to a user that the website they are viewing is working but the specific web address isn't available. This could happen because:

  • the web page never existed,
  • the web page was moved (without a redirection set), or
  • the user typed the web address into the address bar incorrectly.

So why 404?

The reason is logical but not very exciting. Basically, there are different types of HTTP response status codes which indicate that a HTTP request has or hasn't been successful. Class 4 which are for user errors. So 4 is a 'client error response' and 04 means 'not found'.

Further reading

404 Not Found - HTTP | MDN
The HTTP 404 Not Found client error response status code indicates that the server cannot find the requested resource. Links that lead to a 404 page are often called broken or dead links and can be subject to link rot.
MDN

The article for the 404 HTTP response status code on Mozilla's MDN Web documentation.

Disclosure

AI use

Some parts of the text were drawn from or inspired by text generated using AI the following prompt:

{ Explain 404 pages for a non-tech savvy audience. Describe what it is, its common usages, a short history. Also provide examples where relevant. }

AI tools used: Google Gemini and GhatGPT.

No text was incorporated verbatim. All text in this resource was included at the author's discretion.

Provenance

This resource was produced by Elliott Bledsoe. It was first published on 1 May 2024. This is version 1.0.

Changelog

v 1.0 – 1 May 2024
First version of the listing published.