Renny Gleeson: 404, the story of a page not found

222,036 views ・ 2012-05-11

TED


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

00:15
So what I want to try to do is tell a quick story
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about a 404 page and a lesson that was learned as a result of it.
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But to start it probably helps to have an understanding
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of what a 404 page actually is.
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The 404 page is that.
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It's that broken experience on the Web.
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It's effectively the default page
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when you ask a website for something and it can't find it.
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And it serves you the 404 page.
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It's inherently a feeling of being broken when you go through it.
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And I just want you to think a little bit about, remember for yourself,
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it's annoying when you hit this thing.
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Because it's the feeling of a broken relationship.
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And that's where it's actually also interesting to think about,
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where does 404 come from?
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It's from a family of errors actually --
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a whole set of relationship errors,
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which, when I started digging into them,
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it looks almost like a checklist for a sex therapist or a couples counselor.
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You sort of get down there to the bottom and things get really dicey.
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(Laughter)
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01:17
Yes.
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But these things are everywhere.
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They're on sites big, they're on sites small.
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This is a global experience.
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What a 404 page tells you
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is that you fell through the cracks.
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And that's not a good experience
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when you're used to experiences like this.
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You can get on your Kinect
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and you can have unicorns dancing
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and rainbows spraying out of your mobile phone.
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A 404 page is not what you're looking for.
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You get that, and it's like a slap in the face.
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Trying to think about how a 404 felt,
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and it would be like if you went to Starbucks
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and there's the guy behind the counter
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and you're over there and there's no skim milk.
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And you say, "Hey, could you bring the skim milk?"
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And they walk out from behind the counter and they've got no pants on.
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And you're like, "Oh, I didn't want to see that."
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That's the 404 feeling.
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(Laughter)
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I mean, I've heard about that.
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So where this comes into play and why this is important
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is I head up a technology incubator,
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and we had eight startups sitting around there.
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And those startups are focused on what they are, not what they're not,
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until one day Athletepath,
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which is a website that focuses on services for extreme athletes,
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found this video.
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02:27
(Video) Guy: Joey!
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Crowd: Whoa!
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Renny Gleeson: You just ... no, he's not okay.
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They took that video and they embedded it in their 404 page
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and it was like a light bulb went off for everybody in the place.
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Because finally there was a page
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that actually felt like what it felt like to hit a 404.
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(Laughter)
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(Applause)
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So this turned into a contest.
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Dailypath that offers inspiration
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put inspiration on their 404 page.
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Stayhound, which helps you find pet sitters through your social network,
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commiserated with your pet.
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Each one of them found this.
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It turned into a 24-hour contest.
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At 4:04 the next day, we gave out $404 in cash.
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And what they learned
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was that those little things, done right, actually matter,
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and that well-designed moments can build brands.
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So you take a look out in the real world,
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and the fun thing is you can actually hack these yourself.
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You can type in an URL and put in a 404 and these will pop.
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This is one that commiserates with you.
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This is one that blames you.
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This is one that I loved.
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This is an error page,
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but what if this error page was also an opportunity?
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So it was a moment in time
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where all of these startups had to sit and think
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and got really excited about what they could be.
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Because back to the whole relationship issue,
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what they figured out through this exercise
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was that a simple mistake can tell me what you're not,
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or it can remind me of why I should love you.
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Thank you.
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(Applause)
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