mk-center.ru was the website of OOO "MK-Center" from Dzerzhinsk, Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, which claimed to produce microcrystalline cellulose (MCC). In a 2003 snapshot, the home page is titled "OOO MK-Center Production of Microcrystalline Cellulose" and gives the address "Dzerzhinsk" and the phone number (8313) 33-50-32[1]; in versions from the 2010s the same caption appears with a copyright mark — "© OOO 'MK-Center' Production of Microcrystalline Cellulose" — and the contacts now list the numbers (831) 413-18-19 and 327-27-95, a mobile phone, and the email mk-center@mk-center.ru[2]. The first web archive snapshot of the site is dated 29 December 2003[1], and the last snapshot still showing the company's content is from 8 March 2017[4]. In 2004 the site took part in the Nizhny Novgorod Internet Day vote under the name "MK - Center"[5].

What it was

In the home page's description, the company presented itself as a producer of "chemical preparations based on cotton cellulose and other natural polysaccharides"; it called its main business "a large-scale project — production of microcrystalline cellulose (MCC)"[1]. The same page explained that MCC is "a white powder obtained by hydrolysis of cotton cellulose," used in the chemical, pharmaceutical, and food industries as a filler, sorbent, and thickener[1].

No later than December 2013 the home page's title changed to a list of applications: "Food additive for the production of bread, confectionery, and sausage products, a filler for tableting, from manufacturer MK-Center"[2]; the same phrase appeared in the page's description and keywords[4]. The page's body text itself did not change: in the 2013, 2016, and 2017 snapshots it matches the 2003 version[2][3][4].

What the site looked like

The entire story of the company fit on a single page. It opened not with a description of production but with a conversation with the reader about the product's reputation: as the home page put it, at the word "MCC" the reader first thinks of weight-loss pills, and "quite a few lances have already been broken over this"[1]. Next came an argument from the state — a quotation from Resolution No. 17 of the Chief State Sanitary Physician of the Russian Federation, dated 28 December 1999, "On Overcoming the Micronutrient Deficiency," which listed among its priority tasks the organization of production of foods fortified with, among other things, microcrystalline cellulose[1].

Below was a three-column table of application areas — "FOOD PRODUCTS," "MEDICINE, PHARMACY," "CHEMICAL INDUSTRY." The first column listed bread and confectionery products, ice cream, sauces, low-calorie dairy products, and filtering material; the second — tablet form, filler for medicinal preparations, adhesive dental materials, sanitary wipes, and cosmetics; the third — thickener, porous materials, ceramics, sorbents, rubber and polyurethanes, welding electrodes, and heat-resistant bitumen coatings[1].

Below the table was a row of links in square brackets — "News," "About the Company," "Products," "Contacts," "For Suppliers," "For Specialists," "Order"[1]; in the 2010s snapshots "To Top" and "Links" were added[2]. The footer of the 2003 snapshot printed the page generation time — "query: 1.231715 mil-sec"[1].

In the versions from the 2010s, the footer led to unrelated third-party topics that had nothing to do with cellulose: links to "Plastic Surgery" and "Chipboard"[2], and in the 2016 snapshot also a line reading "ZAO Khimservis offers glassy carbon crucibles in Astana, Sigradur glassy carbon"[3]. The same footer named the contractor: "Development and support, hosting © OOO 'Almadesta'"[2].

Place in the Nizhny Novgorod internet

In the results of the 2004 Nizhny Novgorod Internet Day vote, the site is listed in the "Best Corporate Website" category under ID number 238; there were 97 entrants in this category in total. Voting ran through two channels, e-mail and SMS, and "MK - Center" scored zero in both columns; 18 sites were left without a single vote in the category, and the top row of the table was taken by "Aprel Service" with 159 e-mail votes and 28 SMS votes[5]. The domain does not appear in the surviving samples of the Counter.nn.ru rating, so there is nothing to judge its traffic by; more on that sample itself is in the Archival study of the Nizhny Novgorod internet from the counter.nn.ru rating. No other traces of the domain turn up in the Nizhny Novgorod Internet in the materials collected; what is visible, though, is that from 2003 to 2017 the home page's text did not change — the factory showcase was made once, and after that only the title and footer were edited[1][4].

How it closed

The company's content was last recorded by the web archive on 8 March 2017[4]. In the snapshot from 7 December 2021, the site has been replaced by a domain trader's notice: "THIS DOMAIN IS FOR SALE FOR 29,000 RUBLES," offering to buy it through the registrar RU-CENTER's store[6]. The parking page's owner spelled out the fate of such domains plainly: as the home page put it, "many domains were previously used for the websites of various specialized companies," and people still call looking for the former companies, even though no such services are provided[6]. The same for-sale page is still there in the snapshot from 5 October 2022[7]; that snapshot is where the address's recorded history ends.

Sources

  1. web.archive.org — Home page, 2003 (archive)
  2. web.archive.org — Home page, 2013 (archive)
  3. web.archive.org — Home page, 2016 (archive)
  4. web.archive.org — Home page, 2017 (archive)
  5. web.archive.org — Nizhny Novgorod Internet Day voting results, 2004 (archive)
  6. web.archive.org — Home page, 2021 (archive)
  7. web.archive.org — Home page, 2022 (archive)