[jameskilton]

What? Bloomberg's 404 pages are awesome! Also see http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/404

Their 500 pages are just as wacky:

http://www.bloomberg.com/500 http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/500

[blowski]

I totally agree. Why shouldn't they be allowed to have any personality? At least they explicitly show "This is an error page".

[JimmyM]

Criticisms you could make include:

* Frivolous about an error that's probably annoying to the audience. Not a major issue imo.

* Website Feedback link is relatively difficult to spot (but there, grey and in footer).

* Search option is relatively difficult to spot (but there, black and top right).

* Heavy (2.7MB) for a page which needs to load quickly. Not an issue for Bloomberg with their slick CDN but bad practice for most. The bulk of that is the .gif (http://cdn.gotraffic.net/business/public/images/bbiz404.3020..., c.1.6MB)

Criticisms I would actually make include:

* uh. I feel stupid for laughing so hard at it? I mean, really, it's pretty silly.

[blowski]

Yeah, if Jakob Nielsen reviewed it, he would damn it to hell. But I'm happy that even on some big corporate sites, there's a glimmer of the wackiness of the early internet shining through instead of the pseudo-wackiness that seems to be the current trend.

[wosos]

Exactly, it looks pretty authentic, so much different than the politically correct fabricated PR/Marketing/Geekiness that's everywhere now.

[userbinator]

A 1.6MB simple .gif animation is a bit unexpected - I was thinking there would be some new HTML5 tech involved (WebGL?) But as bloated as it is, it was probably the best way to make something that works on just about any browser.

[rbehrends]

I'd add a concern that the animation can probably also induce motion sickness in some people.

[notyourwork]

I agree 100%, its nice to see a big place with some personality.

[mahouse]

He said he liked it: "How not not to make a 404 page" ;-)

[wiresurfer]

@mahouse, i edited the description in light of the new information. What he pointed out here was perfectly right (at that time instant)

[jameskilton]

Haha nice. It definitely was just one "not" when I posted!

[72deluxe]

That first 500 one is insane. I could watch it all day.

[wiresurfer]

hey james, Thanks for pointing this out. this indeed is awesome!