altex.nnov.ru was the site of the Nizhny Novgorod trading group ZAO ALTEX Group of Companies (ЗАО «АЛТЭКС — группа компаний»), which handled comprehensive office fit-outs: computers and office equipment, copying and post-press machinery, stationery, furniture, and related services. Its Nizhny Novgorod affiliation is confirmed by the page itself: at the bottom it listed the address "N.Novgorod, Nevskaya St., 23," phone numbers with the city code — "(8312)166000, 111100, 111110" — and the mailbox line1@altex.nnov.ru[1]. The domain in the nnov.ru zone has been known to the web archive since October 22, 1999, when the address served not yet a site but the server's service directory listing, "Index of /"[2].

What the site looked like

The surviving snapshot of the home page, captured by the web archive in March 2015, shows a page whose content had stopped in the autumn of 2006: the last news-feed entry is dated October 5, 2006[1]. The top menu consisted of six items — "About the Company," "Showrooms," "Vacancies," "Service Departments," "Contacts," and a site map; next to it stood a site search field, and the page opened with the greeting "Welcome"[1].

Most of the page was taken up by a list of product lines, effectively serving as a catalogue: "Stationery," "Computers and Office Equipment," "Networking and Telecommunications Equipment," "Copying and Duplicating Machinery," "GMP Post-Press Equipment," "Paper Shredders," "Equipment for Printing and Personalizing Plastic Cards," "Packaging Equipment and Materials," "Furniture and Carpeting," "Blinds," "Plastic Windows," "Promotional Products," as well as sections "Our Partners" and "Our Clients"[1]. A separate line offered "Quick-turnaround printing, copying, and design services," and the promotional block "Please note" featured, as the home page put it, a "Talented IBM System X server"[1].

The page ran two feedback mechanisms typical of the mid-2000s: a subscription form for company news requiring an email address and a "manage subscription" link, and a visitor poll — "Which criterion is most important to you when choosing a promotional-products supplier?" — with options ranging from "A well-known name and market experience" to "The ability to order through the website"[1].

Retail chains and 2006 news

The home page's news feed shows that the group ran not only wholesale supply but also retail chains. The postings mention three names: the "Domashny Kompyuter" ("Home Computer") computer stores, the "Skrepka" ("Paper Clip") stationery stores, and the wholesale operation "KANTsOPT"[1]. In September–October 2006 the site reported that the "Domashny Kompyuter" store had moved and grown 2.5 times over, that a computer-assembly championship had been announced, that "KANTsOPT" was giving gifts to its top wholesale buyers, and that "Skrepka" stores were running a "10% discount plus a GIFT"[1].

Two news items mark the company's outside ties: on September 7, 2006, a joint promotion, "Business Wins in Color," with XEROX, and on September 5, 2006, a report that ZAO ALTEX Group of Companies had become a member of the Russian Association of Suppliers and Manufacturers of Promotional Products[1].

Place in the Nizhny Novgorod internet

altex.nnov.ru belongs to the corporate layer of the Nizhny Novgorod Internet — showcase sites of local trading firms, set up for a catalogue, contact information, and company news rather than for an audience. In our surviving samples of the Counter.nn.ru counter the domain does not appear, so its traffic cannot be judged from the numbers; the overall picture of the ranking is discussed in the Archival study of the Nizhny Novgorod internet from the counter.nn.ru rating. The site is also absent from the surviving results table of the Nizhny Novgorod Internet Day vote in 2004[4].

How it closed

There is no exact closing date for the site in the available material. The home page's substantive life breaks off in October 2006 — a snapshot taken by the web archive almost nine years later, in March 2015, still showed the same page with news from the autumn of 2006[1]. According to our check of the domain, from 2017 onward the address served a blank page instead of a site, and the last web-archive snapshot is dated September 8, 2024[3]. Thus, what remains of the Nizhny Novgorod ALTEX group's site are archived copies of its home page: a list of product lines, the address on Nevskaya Street, 23, three city phone numbers, and a news feed from a single autumn in 2006.

Sources

  1. web.archive.org — Home page, 2015 (archive)
  2. web.archive.org — Home page, 1999 (archive)
  3. web.archive.org — List of altex.nnov.ru snapshots in the web archive (archive)
  4. web.archive.org — Results of the Day of the Nizhny Novgorod Internet vote, 2004 (archive)