Household Automation (ba.ru) — a website of a Nizhny Novgorod company that sold audio, video, household, and computer equipment. The company's address was 603152, Nizhny Novgorod, Larina", "behind the Trud plant"[1]. The domain's web-archive snapshots span the period from September 19, 2000[2] to April 27, 2018[8].

A site for wholesalers only

In the snapshot from August 2, 2007, ba.ru was built as a working tool for the wholesale department, not a storefront for the buyer. The home page opened with a "Dealer Login" form with login and password fields, a link to a price list marked "Price (02.08/04:11)," and sections "Contacts," "On Defective Goods," and "Promotions"[1]. Right there stood a warning: "This site is ONLY the wholesale department's site. We do not sell single items" — retail customers were referred to the help line at (8312) 78-70-80[1].

The 2007 contact block is detailed enough to reveal the company's structure: computer department phone (8312) 787-787, service center 61-88-50 (51, 52), retail department managers 61-86-55, 56, wholesale department (8312) 61-86-61 with extension numbers that visitors were asked to dial "IN TONE MODE"[1]. Listed were the claims department, the advertising department, and the sales department with employees' extension numbers — head of sales Dmitry Gulnyaev (ext. 211), a manager for built-in appliances, a manager for Lipetsk[1]. On the same page two different formats of the area code coexist: "Our phone /831/ 4 61-86-61" at the top and "(8312)" in the other numbers[1]. The hours of operation are printed with an internal contradiction: "Monday–Friday from 9.00 to 18.00, Friday from 9.00 to 17.00, Saturday from 9.00 to 12.00, Sunday closed"[1]. The page ended with the copyright line "2000–2006 Household Automation" and the line "Website development: ATS Company"[1].

Place in the The Internet

In the Nizhny Novgorod Internet, the site was noticeable through a local directory: in the nn.ru rubricator — a directory of Nizhny Novgorod websites — "Household Automation," described as "Sale of audio and video," was listed in the category "Firms (Enterprises): Audio-Video." In the snapshot from June 23, 2002, it topped a list of thirteen resources in the category, ranked in descending order of rating: 196 for "Household Automation," 182 for "Informservice," and 93 for the "Impulse" chain of stores[4]. By September 2003 the category had moved to the branch "Firms (Enterprises): Household Appliances: Audio-Video," and the site's rating had grown to 580[6].

In November 2002, ba.ru was included in the citywide list of the rubricator's most popular resources — sites that catalog visitors clicked through to most often over the previous 30 days: 99th place, 163 click-throughs from the directory, rating 223[5]. In the results of the 2004 Nizhny Novgorod Internet Day voting, the site is not mentioned[7].

How it changed and how it ended

The earliest saved snapshot, from September 19, 2000, shows a page titled "BA home page," built with frames: a visitor with an old browser was left with a single line, "This page uses frames, but your browser doesn't support them"[2]. By 2018 the home page was occupied by a news feed: the snapshot from January 16, 2018 is titled "Company News," the page description reads "Wholesale of household and computer equipment," and the keywords are "Household appliances Computers Components Wholesale Nizhny Novgorod"[3]. The content of the news items consists of manufacturers' advertising copy carried over unedited, "we" and all: a note titled "NEW GENERATION OF LCD TELEVISIONS" assures readers that "today the picture of Samsung LED televisions is practically indistinguishable from reality," and that the Mega Contrast technology "allows our models" to render contrast nuances, with the case thickness brought down to 2.99 cm. The next note is about the GIGA JUKE music system with an 80 GB hard drive, room for "20,000 tracks," a Gracenote database covering 350,000 albums, and syncing with a Walkman player via a WM-PORT connector[3].

The domain's last snapshot in the web archive is dated April 27, 2018[8]; as of our check there is no working page at ba.ru.

Links

Sources

  1. web.archive.org — Home page, 2007 (archive)
  2. web.archive.org — Home page, 2000 (archive)
  3. web.archive.org — Home page, 2018 (archive)
  4. web.archive.org — nn.ru rubricator, "Audio-Video" category, 2002 (archive)
  5. web.archive.org — Most popular resources of the nn.ru rubricator, 2002 (archive)
  6. web.archive.org — nn.ru rubricator, "Audio-Video" category, 2003 (archive)
  7. web.archive.org — Results of the Day of the Nizhny Novgorod Internet voting, 2004 (archive)
  8. web.archive.org — Index of ba.ru snapshots in the web archive (archive)