example.com is a reserved domain name set aside by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) for documentation purposes. It has been available as an example URL for developers and writers since the late nineties.
While the overall messaging of the page has been consistent over time, the visual appearance has received several major overhauls.
In this article, we take a look at the recent changes as well as the evolution of example.com over the last 20+ years.
What changed on 28 September 2026?
Until 28 September 2026, example.com was a static English-language page. The redesign introduces multi-language support using JavaScript, showing the content in a new language every 5 seconds.
Example.com shows an explanation of the site's purpose in English, Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish. This is the English-language message:
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.
Along with introducing multi-language support, the JavaScript code also inserts an SVG book icon.
How does the language transition animation work?
The new site doesn't just replace the content when showing the next language. Instead, there's a gradual opacity transition.
The opacity animation itself just uses transition: opacity .4s;. But how is the character-by-character transition implemented?
Each character is wrapped in its own span element, and each span gets a slightly larger CSS transition-delay than the one before it. That means each character's opacity animation happens at a slightly different time.
January 20, 2002: What did the earliest version look like?
According to Wikipedia, the example.com website launched on January 1, 1999. The earliest version available to view in the Wayback Machine is from January 20, 2002.
The earliest version of the website only featured a list of domain names reserved by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and IANA.
In the .com, .net, and .org top-level domains (TLDs), various domain names are reserved. These names are reserved from initial registration, but to the extent they are already registered the existing registrant may renew them.
Structurally, the HTML used a table layout, with the ICANN logo positioned in the top left corner of the page.
The server headers show that the site used Apache 1.3.22 at this point.
March 28, 2002: simplified messaging
The first version of the example.com wording we recognize today came 67 days after the first available screenshot:
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: RFC 2606 citation added
In February 2003, the content was amended to include a link to RFC 2606, the official document for reserved top-level and second-level domains, so visitors could find more information on the website's purpose.
There was also a small technical change around this time: the server was upgraded to Apache 1.3.27 on Red Hat Linux.
July 30, 2010: .edu added to domain list
The website then went unchanged for seven years. On July 30, 2010, a slight change was made: example.edu was now pointed to the landing page, alongside the three previous domains.
July 29, 2013: migration and landing page redesign
July 2013 saw an infrastructure migration off Apache and onto the EdgeCast Content Delivery Network (CDN), alongside a major redesign of the landing page. The new design used a rounded card with an <h1> reading 'Example Domain' and a new description of the website's purpose.
The viewable domain list was now gone, with a link to IANA's website for more information.
October 17, 2019: font and copy changes
A new update came six years after the biggest change in the website's history. The layout remained the same, but the font stack was modernized to include more fallback fonts for devices such as Macs, iPhones, and Windows PCs.
The copy was tweaked slightly, with 'is for use in illustrative examples' replacing 'established to be used' and 'in literature' replacing 'in examples'.
October 9, 2025: infrastructure switch and redesign
Twelve years after the switch from Apache to the EdgeCast CDN, another infrastructure change took place: the Server header disappeared entirely. The response headers alone don't reveal which platform was serving the page at this point.
A change of provider around this time isn't surprising. EdgeCast had been acquired from Yahoo by Limelight Networks in 2022 and rebranded as Edgio. Edgio then filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in late 2024, with Akamai acquiring select Edgio customer contracts. As with the 2013 migration, this technical change came alongside a visual redesign.
Visually, the card design was dropped, and the HTML was minified. The copy was changed to a more direct message, again linking to IANA's website, with the link text changed from 'More information...' to 'Learn more'.
June 9, 2026: Cloudflare migration
The most recent update, on June 9, 2026, brought no visual changes. However, it marked another infrastructure switch: the site now serves from Cloudflare, as indicated by the cloudflare server header and CF-RAY header in the response. Whatever platform served the page after the October 2025 change, it has now been replaced with a Cloudflare-fronted setup.
The only HTML changes on the page itself were a favicon tag being added and the <p> tags being closed. The page now includes an empty favicon:
<link rel="icon" href="data:," />
This avoids a lot of unnecessary requests, as otherwise browsers look for a favicon at /favicon.ico.
Avoid relying on it for testing and monitoring purposes
Example.com first introduced an "Avoid use in operations" message in 2025.
For developers, it's tempting to use example.com to check if the network is working or test HTTP requests. The example server likely receives a lot of traffic through this.
However, as the page now clarifies, it's not a service you can rely on. When we look at our uptime monitoring data, we can see that every now and then the example.com server doesn't respond correctly.
Using infrastructure that your organization controls can be more reliable.
Conclusion
Looking at the visual timeline, we can see that changes to example.com happen sporadically. Sometimes a couple of small tweaks happen in back-to-back months. Other times the website remains untouched for periods of up to seven years.
The most significant changes are the migrations, which have usually been paired with a redesign: starting with Apache, moving to the EdgeCast CDN, and most recently switching to Cloudflare.
We have been monitoring the page for several years in our public demo project. The Chrome UX Report (CrUX) data shows how page speed has changed over time.
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