Example.com just launched the biggest redesign in decades, and it is a reminder that even the most boring internet address deserves a little respect. The domain, reserved by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) for documentation purposes, got a full visual overhaul on 28 September 2026. It is now a rotating, animated page that switches languages every five seconds, complete with a JavaScript file and an SVG book icon.
The redesign adds multi-language support in English, Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish. Each language appears for five seconds, with a smooth opacity transition between them. The text explains the site’s purpose: “This domain is for use in documentation examples without needing permission. This is not a service, avoid relying on it for testing and monitoring purposes.”
The New Animation
The character-by-character transition is the clever bit. Each letter is wrapped in its own span element, and each span gets a slightly larger CSS transition-delay than the one before it. That means the letters fade in at different times, creating a wave effect across the screen.
The opacity animation itself is simple: transition: opacity .4s;. The character delay trick is the actual work. It is a small hack, but it makes the page feel more alive than a static image ever could.
Why IANA Changed It
IANA released a statement explaining the reasoning behind the recent changes. The organization said the updates were driven by two goals: reducing bandwidth demands and improving the site’s usefulness. Most of the traffic to example.com is automated, so the redesign splits the page content into a basic HTML file augmented by a separate JavaScript file with additional content. Bots tend not to fetch the JavaScript, which reduces overall data requirements.
The statement also addressed the site’s actual purpose. Example.com exists for documentation, not as a general-purpose endpoint for availability testing. There is no requirement for a HTTP service to be present on the host to fulfill its purpose — IANA operates it as a courtesy.
“At its heart it is a placeholder for a site no-one should be accessing, but we have historically showed a message there to inform visitors about why the domain is registered and how they may use it.”
From 1999 to Now
The site’s history stretches back to 1999, when the example.com website launched. The earliest version available to view in the Wayback Machine is from January 20, 2002, and it was a simple list of reserved domain names. ICANN and IANA reserved names in the .com, .net and .org top-level domains.
The HTML used a table layout, with the ICANN logo in the top left corner. The server headers show Apache 1.3.22 running at the time.
On March 28, 2002, the site adopted the wording we recognize today:
“You have reached this web page by typing ‘example.com’, ‘example.net’ or ‘example.org’ into your web browser. These domain names are reserved for use in documentation and are not available for registration.”
February 7, 2003 brought a link to RFC 2606, the official document for reserved top-level and second-level domains. The server was upgraded to Apache 1.3.27 on Red Hat Linux around the same time.
July 30, 2010 added example.edu to the list. Then July 29, 2013 saw a major redesign. The redirect to IANA’s website was removed, and example.com began serving its own page from the EdgeCast Content Delivery Network (CDN). The design used a rounded card with an h1 reading ‘Example Domain’ and a new description of the site’s purpose. The viewable domain list vanished, replaced by a link to IANA’s website for more information.
October 17, 2019 brought font and copy changes. The layout stayed the same, but the font stack was modernized for Macs, iPhones and Windows PCs. The copy tweaked slightly, changing “established to be used” to “is for use” and adding “in literature” to replace “in examples.”
The 2025 Infrastructure Switch
Almost twelve years after the switch from Apache to the EdgeCast CDN, example.com underwent another infrastructure change. The redesign on 28 September 2026 completes the picture. It is the biggest visual overhaul in decades, and it comes with a JavaScript file that adds the language transitions and the book icon.
The redesign is a small victory for the mundane. A domain name that exists only to be copied and pasted now has a reason to look interesting. The animation is trivial, but it is also delightful. It is the kind of thing you notice only because it is so rare.
The IANA statement is the real story here. It shows an organization that understands its own absurdity. Example.com is a placeholder. It is a warning. It is also a working website that just got a major update.
Timeline of Changes
- The site launched on 1 January 1999, with the earliest screenshot available from 20 January 2002.
- The current wording appeared 67 days later, on 28 March 2002.
- The RFC 2606 link arrived on 7 February 2003.
- Example.edu joined the list on 30 July 2010.
- The EdgeCast CDN redesign followed on 29 July 2013.
- Font and copy changes came on 17 October 2019.
- The 2025 infrastructure switch preceded the 28 September 2026 redesign.
The redesign is a small gesture, but it is a sincere one. IANA spent effort on a domain that nobody should care about, and the result is a page that is genuinely nicer to look at. That is the kind of attention to detail that deserves a nod, even if the domain itself will never matter to anyone who is not cutting and pasting a configuration file.
See the video the story is built around at debugbear.com.
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