solo3m.nn.ru was the site of the Nizhny Novgorod science-and-production firm "SOLO," which traded in abrasives, adhesives, and self-adhesive tapes and represented the American company 3M in the Volga-Vyatka region[1]. The contacts on the home page listed Nizhny Novgorod, 41-A Gruzinskaya Street, and phone numbers with the 8312 area code[1]; by 2009 the address had changed to 128 Rodionova Street[3]. Web Archive snapshots of the site span the period from May 2002 to November 2009[4].

The firm and its products

As the home page stated, the firm "SOLO" was founded in 1991 on the basis of the Research Institute of Chemistry at Lobachevsky Nizhny Novgorod State University[1]. The site named its best-known development as an adhesive composition for bonding hard-to-glue polymer materials — polyethylene, polypropylene, polytetrafluoroethylene (fluoroplastic-4, or teflon), polymethyl methacrylate (acrylic glass), and polyurethane; according to the site, the development had received several patents, including one international patent[1]. The home page named "3M" — "Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company" — as co-author of the research work behind the latter patent[1].

Alongside research, the firm acted as 3M's representative in the Volga-Vyatka region and offered materials for grinding and polishing, self-adhesive tapes and films, adhesives, cleaners, and lubricants[1]. Visitors were invited to the office, where products popular in the region were on display, and were promised that "at your request a manager can come to the production site"[1]. In the page title of the 2005 and 2009 snapshots, the firm called itself an official dealer of 3M[2][3].

How the site was structured

The top menu consisted of five items: "Home," "News," "Catalog," "Price List," "Contacts"[1]. On the left was a product directory: abrasives, adhesives, shock absorbers, floor coverings, adhesive tapes, hook-and-loop fasteners, window films, flexographic tapes[1]. Between the 2003 and 2005 snapshots, the item "Branded tape" was added to the directory[2]. At the same time the page title changed: while in 2003 it read "NPF SOLO:: Adhesive tapes"[1], by 2005 it already listed both the dealer status and product categories — tape and abrasives[2].

The content of the home page barely changed over six years: the section "A little about the firm" is word-for-word identical in the 2003, 2005, and 2009 snapshots[1][3]. The copyright notice at the bottom also remained unchanged — a 2002 copyright mark that was not updated up to the last snapshot[3]. There is no visitor counter in the surviving text of the home page.

Contacts and relocation

In 2003 and 2005 the site listed the address "Nizhny Novgorod, 41-A Gruzinskaya St." and the phone/fax numbers (8312) 780-166, 780-167, and 39-74-38[1][2]. By the November 2009 snapshot the contacts had fully changed: postal code 603093, Nizhny Novgorod, 128 Rodionova Street, phone numbers 8 (831) 432-92-92 and 432-97-97[3]. The street, the city code, and the numbers themselves all changed at once — the previous contacts were not preserved on the page even for reference. The email address remained the same throughout all the years: info@solo3m.nn.ru[1][3].

Place in the Nizhny Novgorod internet

The site belongs to a layer typical of the nn.ru domain: corporate presences of small firms with a single office, a catalog, and a price list, without a forum or an editorial section. In our materials it is known from the nn.ru catalog directory, where its card described the product range — abrasives, adhesives, single-sided and double-sided adhesive tapes, anti-slip tapes, dirt-trapping mats, window films, flexographic tapes.

The site does not appear in the surviving samples of the Counter.nn.ru rating that we hold, and we have no data on its traffic. In the published results of the Nizhny Novgorod Internet Day vote of 2004, solo3m.nn.ru does not appear[5]: a narrow-profile supplier of adhesive materials was not a candidate in that vote. Such sites made up the background mass of the Nizhny Novgorod Internet of the early 2000s, whose structure is discussed in more detail in the Archival study of the Nizhny Novgorod internet from the counter.nn.ru rating.

How it closed

The last Web Archive snapshot of the home page is dated November 22, 2009[4]; in total the archive holds about three dozen captures of the address, the earliest from May 26, 2002[4]. As of our check, the domain solo3m.nn.ru no longer exists: accessing it produces neither a site nor a placeholder page. Our materials contain no information about the further fate of the firm "SOLO" itself.

Sources

  1. web.archive.org — Home page, 2003 (archive)
  2. web.archive.org — Home page, 2005 (archive)
  3. web.archive.org — Home page, 2009 (archive)
  4. web.archive.org — Snapshots of solo3m.nn.ru in the Web Archive (archive)
  5. web.archive.org — Voting results of the Day of the Nizhny Novgorod Internet, 2004 (archive)