Criteria

What makes a website applicable for display on 404PageFound? A combination of factors:

1. A site created between 1994-1997 is ideal (but 1998-2001 can work)
2. Site last modified pre-2000 (used to be 2007 assuming it had a creation date from the 1990’s)
3. Graphics: site should not be plain text, or an archive of e-mail/newsgroup postings
4. Contains only HTML, CGI, Perl, or early Java (no PHP or CSS elements). Some sites now have AdSense, however.
5. Server provides data last modified when page info is viewed
6. Page source code contains old date for confirmation, or old publishing software/browser citation
7. Utilizes old HTML methods and tags: animation, font-size, tables, frames, etc
8. Clearly optimized for limited bandwidth (low-resolution graphics, simple layout)
9. Site received an Internet award in its prime (“Site of the Day”, etc.)
10. No social media whatsoever (apart from Guestbook or Bookmark links)
11. Content is written by the author for an audience – only traditional user generated content
12. Can be GeoCities/Angelfire/Tripod/etc. but preference given to other sites first

What does not necessarily make a site Web 1.0:

1. Simplicity
2. Lack of images
3. Post-2004 sites meant to look dated
4. Frames
5. Sites with general poor design

Best Places to Look For Old Websites:

• Used books from 1995-1997
• Old bookmark lists
• Old directory listings
• Web award site archives
• Links from old pages
• Web search for old awards, servers, years, software
• Exploration of moderately old sites for even older internal links
• Certain university servers like MIT and Carnegie Mellon