Ideally, you should never see a 404 error page, but if you do, I hope it will be something interesting or entertaining. The 404 error occurs when a page is not found on a website. It’s mostly likely not due to any one of the mysterious server or Internet glitches that we blame everything else on. It’s because the web site owner has a link to a page that isn’t there. Maybe it used to be, or maybe it’s just a hastily typed link that they never tested.

Smashing Magazine has a nice 404 design gallery they posted back in January and Web Design Resources has a gallery as well.   Better still, go discover some of your own. Here’s a couple I’ve found.

Swiss Miss 404

Laughing Squid 404

Kottke 404

Failure is an option, or , how you fail has options. 404 pages are there because shit happens. Shit you didn’t plan. So make it a memorable failure. Something you can be proud of. Something that doesn’t look like a failure. Alternately, make it not-broken, have the page redirect to your home page, or make it a search page. Smashing Magazine’s solution is to direct you to their 404 Gallery. Just don’t make it a broken, boring, oh my God I fucked up page.

If you are using Wordpress with a decent theme, you should be able to customize your own 404 template easily. Just go to Dashboard -> Appearance -> Editor -> 404 Template.

You can see my 404 page by clicking here, or trying some odd URL of your own like… http://mediarosa.com/wtf.