apteka.nn.ru was the site of the "First Nizhny Novgorod Internet Pharmacy," a service for searching, ordering, and delivering medicines in Nizhny Novgorod[1]. The copyright notice on the earliest surviving home page is dated 2000[1], and the last substantive web-archive snapshot dates to December 2011[6]. Its Nizhny Novgorod affiliation is visible right on the pages: the reply address was in the local domain zone — apteka@r52.ru[1], and a later version of the site asked visitors to remember the city phone numbers 415-73-79 and 464-18-65[5]; in the nn.ru directory the project was described in one line — "The First Nizhny Novgorod Internet Pharmacy"[2].

The site in 2001

The earliest snapshot of the home page was taken on February 24, 2001; the page's title was "The First Nizhny Novgorod Internet Pharmacy / Home"[1]. The pharmacy described itself this way: "The First Nizhny Novgorod Internet Pharmacy is above all a service for citizens," through which anyone with internet access could obtain information about pharmacy products and place an order for them[1]. The stated set of functions was search, reservation, delivery, and payment for medicines and medical devices[1].

The home page promised a discount to regular users registered in its database, and carried a block headed "LOW-PRICE GUARANTEE"[1]. A "social day" was announced separately: every Friday any drug was sold at a 7% discount[1]. The page's promotional phrasing ("a unique opportunity to purchase the necessary medicines... without leaving your armchair by the computer") belongs to the site itself, as stated on its home page[1]. A technical note typical of the era appears there as well: for the site to work correctly, browser support for cookies had to be enabled[1]. Comments and bug reports were requested to be sent to apteka@r52.ru, and the design was credited to the studio Teamoty Brane Inc[1].

What the site's owners were aiming at is shown by the keywords in the page code: alongside "Nizhny Novgorod," "N.Novgorod," "Gorky," and "Nizhny Novgorod" were listed cotton wool, bandages, syringes, aspirin, Panadol, paracetamol, Coldrex, and Fervex[1].

"Nizhny Novgorod medicine delivery": the site in 2011

By 2011 the title had changed to "Nizhny Novgorod Medicine Delivery," and the home page had shrunk to three links — "Enter catalog," "Enter forum," and "Our new site" — plus a reminder of the phone numbers[5]. The snapshot from March 4, 2011 lists the numbers 415-73-79 and 464-18-65[5]; in the snapshot from December 28 of the same year the second number is already different — 414-19-58[6].

At the same time a notice for customers appeared on the page: as of April 1, 2011 the company had joined the Association of Pharmaceutical Enterprises — a non-profit organization that, according to the text, united pharmacies of Moscow and the Moscow region and the distributor ZAO "SIA International LTD"[6]. Membership was presented as an additional guarantee of the quality of the products supplied; the same text named the association a winner of the "Platinum Ounce" competition in the "Project of the Year in Medicine Sales" category, and for details the page referred readers to the site aptechka.ru[6].

A place in the Nizhny Novgorod internet

In the nn.ru directory the pharmacy was listed under the category "Firms (Enterprises): Internet Shops." In the version of the directory captured on May 31, 2001, its entry read as follows: status "Active," last checked February 20, 2001, rating 18.42[2].

A year later the category had grown to 38 sites, and in the list sorted by rating, on June 20, 2002 "Internet Pharmacy" held seventh place with a score of 77[3]. Above it stood the leaders of Nizhny Novgorod e-commerce of the time — "Studio Beaumonde" (1862), GSMPHONES.RU (1349), and ADIS.RU (1237); below it were "WebMarket" (59) and "Electronic Medical Shop" (38)[3]. The score was volatile: in a snapshot of the same category from July 25, 2002 the pharmacy's figure is 40[4].

The site had no entry of its own in the general Nizhny Novgorod rating Counter.nn.ru, as our records show, nor did it receive votes in the Nizhny Novgorod Internet Day contest of 2004[8]. Thus the only measurable trace of the pharmacy's visibility in the Nizhny Novgorod Internet is its position in the nn.ru directory, where it was the highest-ranked medical shop in the region[3]. For more on the counting method and how to read such entries, see "Archival study of the Nizhny Novgorod internet from the counter.nn.ru rating."

How it closed

The last web-archive snapshot in which apteka.nn.ru is still a pharmacy is dated December 28, 2011[6]. Where the "Our new site" link led cannot be established from the surviving copies of the home page[5]. After that the domain outlived the site: on January 11, 2019 the web archive recorded, at this address, a standard web-server placeholder page — "Welcome to nginx!" inviting visitors to read the documentation at nginx.org[7]. By that point neither the pharmacy, nor the catalog, nor the forum remained on apteka.nn.ru.

Sources

  1. web.archive.org — Home page, 2001 (archive)
  2. web.archive.org — nn.ru directory, "Internet Shops" section, 2001 (archive)
  3. web.archive.org — nn.ru catalog, "Internet Shops" category, June 2002 (archive)
  4. web.archive.org — nn.ru catalog, "Internet Shops" category, July 2002 (archive)
  5. web.archive.org — Home page, March 2011 (archive)
  6. web.archive.org — Home page, December 2011 (archive)
  7. web.archive.org — Home page, 2019: web-server placeholder page (archive)
  8. web.archive.org — Voting results of the Day of the Nizhny Novgorod Internet, 2004 (archive)