Recently, Burger King has been riding the publicity wave for its ’404 error page’ campaign that it’s launched with social media news site, Digg. Simply put, when users enter something that can’t be found on the site, a customized 404 error page appears that is promoting Burger King’s $1 double cheeseburger. Crowns off to Burger King for coming up with an innovative way to expand its marketing efforts. Clearly, this corporation has an open mind when it comes to toeing new advertising waters.

After learning about Burger King’s endeavor, the search was on to locate creative spins through other website’s customized 404 pages. Surprisingly, there’s a vast selection of fresh examples that show how other businesses incorporate their personalities and some fun into these pages.

You might be asking yourself why anyone would want to have a customized 404 error page. It’s just one more way that you can keep visitors on your site. Most visitors who encounter a 404 File Not Found error on your site head for the hills. When you’re searching for something, be it internally on a site or through a search engine, if your target is M.I.A. it can be a bit of a buzzkill. You want your site audience to stick around and creating a custom 404 error page allows you to do just that.

Here’s a collection of some of the unique 404 pages that have been discovered. Hopefully they offer some inspiration so that you can develop your own.

Hasbro

Lileks

Chris Jennings

Apartment Home Living

Craigslist

Slonky

British Mac

The North Face

Rare View

Frye Wiles