"The page cannot be displayed"
IE is everywhere.
Here's the classic Internet Explorer "page cannot be displayed" error message, as displayed on the big electronic billboard at the East Palo Alto Ikea store.
For you non-IE users, it reads "The page you are looking for is currently unavailable. The Web site might be experiencing technical difficulties, or you may need to adjust your browser settings,"
The brightness of this image or something made the display jumpy, which is why it's hard to read. Other ads (the ones that actually loaded :-) displayed fine.
My favorite part: the scroll bar at the bottom.
Comments and faves
viewbase, Ross Mayfield, jurvetson, DFWDavis, and 167 other people added this photo to their favorites.
courtneyp (95 months ago | reply)
oh, NICE!
Steffe (95 months ago | reply)
Great shot! Only using Firefox these days! Havent been to IKEA (Ingvar Kamprad Elmtaryd Agunnaryd) in years!
Marvin (PA) (95 months ago | reply)
Come to that, IKEA's everywhere. Good shot. I too like the useless scrollbar.
jurvetson (95 months ago | reply)
Oh that is fantastic!!! The creepy march of the Microsoft monoculture... (blog)
Eric Rice (95 months ago | reply)
I drove by that sign the other day... it seemed to be only visible while driving south, not north on 101. I love that stuff. In fact, I saw this in Vancouver, B.C.,
snake8382002 (92 months ago | reply)
wonder who noticed it?
Brainless Angel (88 months ago | reply)
Doesn't the scrollbar make you want to reach out and touch?
brendanclarke [deleted] (84 months ago | reply)
haha, this is great.
rctlocomotionwikipeida has moved to zooomr [deleted] (83 months ago | reply)
IE is everywhere (this is great)!
_alia (81 months ago | reply)
Same sign different error... :-)
jurvetson (81 months ago | reply)
Listen to the technology
– Carver Mead
I just wanted to make a politcal statement... ;-)
Peter Kaminski (81 months ago | reply)
alia, great capture!
nice one, steve. ;-)
DaveToo (80 months ago | reply)
Looks familiar
anitab83 (77 months ago | reply)
Haha, this is too funny. I was just thinking this would make a great ad for a Microsoft competitor.
Also, I thought you might be interested to know this made my Top 10 Billboards post at Say No to Crack (my silly, all-ages appropriate, humor site).
Thanks for making this picture Creative Commons!
Paladin27 (76 months ago | reply)
You'd think they would at least make a custom error page for the software that's running this sign to direct to if something unexpected happens.
Ice Brodie (76 months ago | reply)
Hack the advert!
Okay, so th web is prevasive enough to build advertising with, this, while not competely abnormal given evolution of tech, is a bit sary at the same time.
Andy Geer (76 months ago | reply)
It seems jurvetson and Steffe are using the version of Firefox that magically creates pages even for websites with invalid URL's.
Tom O'Neill (76 months ago | reply)
You have been dugg, sweet!
daveboudreau (76 months ago | reply)
the scroll bar really is such a nice touch!
duanemoodydotcom (76 months ago | reply)
LMAO! That is awesome.
rowast (76 months ago | reply)
i still am angered that i had to set all the machines at my work to IE as the default when firefox is much more secure and stable (in my estimation), opera is as well.
windowshoppers1979 (76 months ago | reply)
Ahhh...technology. Gotta love it. I guess it's better than it showing a porn site or something.
macewan (76 months ago | reply)
came over from digg
great shot
Mac Porteiro (76 months ago | reply)
Great photo! hahahaha... omg...
gags_d_rebel (76 months ago | reply)
lolzzz
Joe Hastings (76 months ago | reply)
Amazing
Scroll bar is a nice touch...
alla la mala (76 months ago | reply)
sweet :-) and hillarious
Duncan Rawlinson (76 months ago | reply)
classic
Michal Osmenda (76 months ago | reply)
class!
arex (75 months ago | reply)
HAH! I remember seeing this when I drove by to go to 84!
Angel! (74 months ago | reply)
I've seen it too--- too many times :P
johanhagelback (73 months ago | reply)
Wonderful timing of the picture. Like it a lot!
keysclass2014 (71 months ago | reply)
I drive past this sign everyday and it is so funny because it is often like that. Nothing screams welcome to Silicon Valley better than that.
library_mistress (70 months ago | reply)
maybe that's something for the Ikea Lovers group: www.flickr.com/groups/ikea_lovers/
Caffeine inc (68 months ago | reply)
brilliant!
alex_m_walker (68 months ago | reply)
Without wanting to defend IE -- I've had battle it enough times -- there's nothing about that screen that is a direct indictment on IE. It's being asked to display a page that isn't available.
If Apple.com's webserver melted down and you tried to visit it with IE, you'd get that page. That doesn't mean the browser is wrong.
James Cridland (67 months ago | reply)
Nice photo. Thanks for making it available for CC - I've used it here:
james.cridland.net/blog/2007/11/18/where-have -i-been/
calmenda (66 months ago | reply)
haha
matýsek (65 months ago | reply)
LOL
Jeffery Schreiner (60 months ago | reply)
thats funny!
jonlin360 (59 months ago | reply)
Hey, I saw an error message on a giant billboard in sweden last week, and it was apparently using Ubuntu, it was displaying an ubuntu-style dialog box on top of the advertisements that said something along the lines of "Security Information - AutoUpdate the system must be restarted..."
The billboard looked similar to this, but it was not Ikea and only half of the dialog box was visible.
BlueisCoool (50 months ago | reply)
bluemedia photography (50 months ago | reply)
quality
ablecluster (50 months ago | reply)
LOL, too funny dude. Did you stop and get some IKEA Meatballs while you were there at least?
RT
www.privacy-tools.us.tc
ThankYouDriveThrough (50 months ago | reply)
Wow. Some of you are embarrassing yourselves. This is a advertising failure, not an IE failure. Nothing worse than non-tech savvy people trying to jump aboard the anti Microsoft train. This is not a problem with IE. The web server cannot locate the page. Any browser would throw a similar error message. The chances are the web server doesn't even run a piece of Microsoft software.
That being said, I use FireFox exclusively.
Dumb people: Thanks for finally motivating me to create a flickr account so I could comment.
Rabi Abonour (50 months ago | reply)
Ha. I saw a sign at the Olympic Village in Barcelona once with a Blue Screen of Death. I had just put away my camera and couldn't get it our in time to get a picture. :(
xeblic (50 months ago | reply)
Very funny.
steƒan. (50 months ago | reply)
hrhr
airtonix2006 (50 months ago | reply)
== ThankYouDriveThrough says:
== The chances are the web server doesn't even run a piece of Microsoft software.
That page there is generated by the server. that page there is the default "404: error page not found" page iis gives out.
You will also note the scrollbars...ms windows scrollbars.
Scarygraphy (50 months ago | reply)
LOL that's amazing haha