galart.r52.ru was the website of a Nizhny Novgorod company that sold disinfectants, consumables, and equipment to medical and preventive-care institutions. In the surviving snapshots it presents itself as ZAO "Nizhny Novgorod Center for Disinfection"; the page footer carries the address "603001, N. Novgorod, per. Kozhevenny, d. 3," the phone numbers (831) 278-01-60, 278-02-99, 278-06-76, and the mail address galart@sandy.ru[1]. The company's earlier name survived in the domain and in the mailbox: according to an entry in the nn.ru directory, from which the domain entered our census of the dead Nizhny Novgorod Internet, it was listed as ZAO "Galart-NN" — "a firm specializing in the sale of disinfectants and products f…" (the entry in our sample breaks off mid-word). The site lived in the Nizhny Novgorod domain zone r52.ru: the first Wayback Machine capture is dated May 19, 2001, and the last home-page text preserved in our records is from February 2, 2016[2].

What kind of company it was

The page told the company's history briefly: as the home page stated, ZAO "Nizhny Novgorod Center for Disinfection" "was founded in 1998 as a firm engaged not only in supplying disinfectants and consumables to medical institutions in the Nizhny Novgorod region and neighboring regions, but also as an organization providing consulting services in epidemiology"[1]. The company described its mission as "comprehensive assistance to medical institutions in preventing hospital-acquired infections"[1].

The site stated the size and structure of the enterprise: a staff of 16, four departments — for work with medical institutions, for work with the regions, transport, and accounting — plus a full-time epidemiologist who consulted free of charge[1]. Its clients were named as "the largest medical institutions of the Nizhny Novgorod region and neighboring regions"[1]. A separate paragraph listed local ties: cooperation with Rospotrebnadzor for the Nizhny Novgorod region (referred to in the text as "the former TsGSEN"), the Nizhny Novgorod Region Healthcare Department, and the Department of Epidemiology at the Nizhny Novgorod State Medical Academy headed by V. V. Shkarin, as well as participation in regional programs and tenders for the purchase of disinfectants[1].

The company called itself the official representative of major manufacturers and listed them: "BelAseptika," "Ecolab," "KIILTOClean" (brand Erisan), "Medlekprom," "LAYERTEX S.L.," "Vita-Pool," "Bozon," "Petrospirt," "Lysoform," "Bochemie-Rus," "Pall Medical," "Chemiline," "Medkhimprom," the Elatoma Instrument-Making Plant, "Raster," and others[1]. The presence of manufacturers' consignment warehouses, the page claimed, allowed orders to be shipped "in the shortest possible time" using its own transport, and prices to be kept "no higher than factory prices"; for regular customers a discount system was mentioned, details of which could be obtained by phone or email[1].

How the site was organized

The top menu had eight items: "About the Company," "News," "Articles," "Recommendations," "Registry Maintenance Rules," "Useful Information," "Contacts," and "Catalog"[1]. The catalog was laid out on the home page in six large sections: "Disinfection" (recommendations and preparations), "Indicators and Tests" (logs, indicators, packaging), "Equipment" (generators, dispensers, containers, trays, consumables, shelving), "Cleaning in Medical Institutions" featuring the HEALTHGUARD system, "Hygiene Products," and "Waste Disposal" (equipment and consumables)[1]. The content of the home page itself was purely textual: a "Welcome!" greeting, a description of the company, and a promise that visitors could "get brief information about the preparations and become acquainted with recommendations for solving the problem of hospital-acquired infections"[1].

The news feed was filled with holiday greetings. The last three entries were dated December 27, 2013 ("Happy New Year!" with an eight-line poem), March 8, 2013, and February 23, 2013[1]. There was no professional news — about deliveries, conferences, or new preparations — in this feed at the time of the captures.

Place in the Nizhny Novgorod internet

The site had modest visibility. It entered our census from the nn.ru directory's category listing rather than from a ranking: it does not appear in the surviving samples of the Counter.nn.ru counter, and we have no record of its position or visit counts — for more on the sample itself, see the Archival study of the Nizhny Novgorod internet from the counter.nn.ru rating. The domain galart.r52.ru does not appear in the final voting table of the 2004 Nizhny Novgorod Internet Day[3]. This is the ordinary fate of a narrow-profile corporate site: it worked not for the public but for hospital procurement officers, and could not take part in mass-voting contests.

How it closed

Signs of the shutdown are visible directly in the captures. The home-page texts from February 20, 2015 and February 2, 2016 match word for word — from the list of manufacturers down to the 2013 New Year greeting[1][2]. That is, for at least the last year of its existence the site was not updated at all, and its last dated entry predates the captures by more than two years. In total the Wayback Machine captured the home page 79 times starting May 19, 2001, but we have preserved text from only two of them — both from this final, frozen period[2]. When the live address was checked during the census, it no longer had any content: an empty page or a parked domain.

Sources

  1. web.archive.org — Home page, 2015 (archive)
  2. web.archive.org — Home page, 2016 (archive)
  3. web.archive.org — Results of the Day of the Nizhny Novgorod Internet vote, 2004 (archive)