example.com, a reserved domain managed by IANA for documentation purposes, underwent its largest redesign in decades on 28 September 2026. The previously static English-only page now supports six languages—English, Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, and Spanish—using JavaScript that cycles through translations every 5 seconds. Each character is individually wrapped in span elements with staggered CSS transition delays for a gradual opacity animation effect.
The redesign also introduces an SVG book icon and splits page content into a basic HTML structure with a separate JavaScript file. IANA explained this change reduces bandwidth, as most traffic is automated and doesn't fetch the JavaScript component.
Since its launch on January 1, 1999, example.com has served as a placeholder for documentation examples. The earliest archived version from January 20, 2002 featured a table-based layout listing reserved domain names under ICANN and IANA management, running on Apache 1.3.22. The site receives heavy traffic from users cutting sample configurations without customization, though IANA emphasizes it's not intended for availability testing or monitoring purposes.
Source: Hacker News · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing