burmednn.nnov.ru was the site of a Nizhny Novgorod trading firm, OOO NTP "Buryi Medved-NN" ("Brown Bear-NN"), a supplier of electronic components, cable products and network equipment. As the home page stated, the enterprise was "founded in the summer of 1997" and was "a representative of the trading house 'Buryi Medved' [Brown Bear], Moscow, in the Nizhny Novgorod region"[1]. The earliest snapshot of the site in the web archive is dated February 10, 2003[1], the last one November 24, 2011[3]; the copyright notice in the footer listed the period "1997 — 2011"[3].

What the firm traded in

The product range is described almost identically across all surviving snapshots: connectors, cables, fasteners, tools, network equipment for local computer networks, telecommunications and communication systems, LEDs, indicators, capacitors, switches, microchips[1]. The 2003 version noted separately: "We supply electronic components from various world manufacturers, from stock and to order"[1]. The page's keywords, set for search engines, named specific items — D-SUB connectors, twisted pair, tools, electronic components, price list[1].

By 2011 a new line of business had appeared in the product list: the home page opened with an announcement, "We supply fiber-optic equipment to order," with a link to details[2].

The site in 2003: Rozhdestvenskaya Street, 26

The early version of the site was built as a small corporate showcase with a horizontal menu of six items: "About the Firm," "Catalog," "Price List," "News," "Directions," "Manufacturers"[1]. Under the firm's name was the motto "freedom of connections, always"[1].

Contact details at the time: postal address — Nizhny Novgorod, Rozhdestvenskaya Street, house 26; telephone and fax (8312) 30-26-90[1]. Correspondence was handled through several mailboxes: inquiries were accepted at olga@burmednn.nnov.ru and brmdnn@kis.ru, questions about the site's operation went to maria@burmednn.nnov.ru, and at the very bottom of the page a webmaster was listed separately with an address on mail.ru[1].

The home page served as a news feed: it carried a "News of the Day" block reporting a price cut on modular outlet systems and wire terminals, a separate line "Our exchange rate has changed" — which in those years typically announced a recalculation of currency-pegged prices — and sections "Useful Links" and "Technical Information"[1]. At the bottom, a last-updated date was entered by hand — on the surviving snapshot, February 4, 2003[1].

Move to Moskovskoye Shosse and the later version

By the 2011 snapshots, the firm had changed both its address and its telephone area code. The postal address read: "603079 Nizhny Novgorod, Moskovskoye Shosse, 81," telephone and fax — (831) 241-16-29 and 241-68-15[2]. A schedule had appeared: "Working hours 9:30 - 18:00, daily, except Saturday and Sunday"[2]. Inquiries were now handled by three employees — addresses olga@, anna@ and mironova@ at the domain burmednn.nnov.ru[2].

By this time the menu had been rewritten in capital letters and expanded: "CATALOG," "PRICE LIST," "NEWS," "DIRECTIONS," "MANUFACTURERS," "INFORMATION"[2]. The "About the Firm" item had disappeared — its text had moved directly onto the home page. In its place, prominently displayed, was a link "Legal and Banking Details"[2]: a sign that the site served not a retail visitor but a procurement officer who needed an invoice and a contract. The March and November 2011 snapshots match in content[3].

Place in the Nizhny Novgorod internet, and closure

The site belongs to the mass and almost undocumented layer of the Nizhny Novgorod Internet — representations of small trading and supply firms in the nnov.ru domain. Such sites did not compete for traffic: in the Counter.nn.ru rating, burmednn.nnov.ru has neither points nor votes, it does not appear among the participants voted for on the Nizhny Novgorod Internet Day, and it entered the survey only through the nn.ru catalog's rubricator, where its description was also kept. For more on the selection methodology, see "Archival study of the Nizhny Novgorod internet from the counter.nn.ru rating."

The site's purpose was different: it functioned as a constantly available price list and contact card for procurement officers at Nizhny Novgorod enterprises — hence the set of sections: catalog, prices, banking details, directions. Over eight years of observed life, the design and structure barely changed — what changed was the address, the phone numbers and the list of goods.

In total, the web archive index for this domain lists 48 records. The last snapshot of the home page is dated November 24, 2011; in it the site is still fully functional, with a current address and phone numbers[3]. No later copies have survived, there are no traces of a move to another address, and the domain was not observed thereafter.

Sources

  1. web.archive.org — Home page, 2003 (archive)
  2. web.archive.org — Home page, 2011 (archive)
  3. web.archive.org — Home page, November 2011 (archive)