The Best 404 Error Pages On The Internet

When your ham-fisted typing leads you to a web page that doesn’t exist, you get a 404 error message. You might not have found what you were looking for but it’s not all bad as a well-designed 404 page can be even funnier and more creative than the thing you were looking for in the first place. Here are some of the best 404 pages on the internet…

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Lego

Unsurprisingly, the legendary Danish building brick firm uses a comical tableau of Lego men to get the message across and appears to be blaming its internet woes on a meddling jester.

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Hakim El Hattab

This brilliantly creepy 404 page from interface designer Hakim El Hattab features numerous floating eyes along with a sinister message that says “You shouldn’t be here”. The eyes even follow your cursor around the screen.

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Airbnb

This animated 404 page from rapidly growing holiday apartment listings firm Airbnb features an animated cartoon of a tourist’s mood going from good to bad while slowing dropping an ice cream on the floor with the word “Oops!”.

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NASA

The American space agency’s astronomy-themed error page is simple and somewhat bleak featuring an image of a black hole and the words: “The cosmic object you are looking for has disappeared beyond the event horizon”.

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Starbucks

When Starbucks isn’t getting your name wrong on your coffee cup, it’s designing beautifully effective 404 pages. A solitary coffee cup ring marks the absence of its primary product along with a list of helpful suggestions as to what you should do next.

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Association for Computing Machinery

This no-frills 404 page includes a ‘live’ message being typed by a web server explaining how depressed it is to have let you down in a tone similar to Marvin the Paranoid Android from Douglas Adams’ sci-fi classic The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

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Daniel Karcher Film Design Studios

This amazing 404 page is a mini film in itself starting with a deserted subway platform covered in posters with the words ‘Lost’ and ‘Missing’. Then a train rolls and in and you click on the open doors to board, sitting opposite a sleeping man and woman taking photos while the the train disappears into the tunnel.

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Github

Riffing on the famous “not the droids you’re looking for” line from Star Wars, this neat offering from computer code-sharing site Github is definitely the 404 page you’re looking for.

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South Park

Oh my God, they killed Kenny! The satirical cartoon’s website 404 page features a picture of mumbling Kenny meeting one of his many fates - being squished by a giant 404.

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Nouveller

Probably the best 404 page we’ve ever seen comes from web designer Benjamin Reid and is a homage to Jurassic Park’s famous hacking scene. Typing any random text into the page fires up an animation with baddie Dennis Nedry’s famous “You didn’t say the magic word!” screen. Clever boy.