vist.nnov.ru is the website of a Nizhny Novgorod computer company, "VIST-NN," later signing itself as "VIST Company." The domain was active from 1999 to 2020. The city connection is visible right in the title of the 2007 home page: "VIST Company:: Nizhny Novgorod"[2]. In the second half of its life, the same address hosted the website of the service center of "Unicom Service" LLC, with an office at 603105, Nizhny Novgorod, 127 Vaneeva Street, and phone number +7 [831] 278-51-00[3]. In the nn.ru directory, on whose data our Archival study of the Nizhny Novgorod internet from the counter.nn.ru rating is built, the firm is described as "one of the largest computer companies in the region." The last snapshot in the web archive is dated February 5, 2020[6].

The first version: a choice of encoding instead of content

The earliest snapshot of the site was made on November 23, 1999. A single line survives from the page: "VIST-NN Copyright 1999 Vist-NN. For any comments, please contact to Webmaster. WIN | DOS | KOI | MAC"[1]. The four abbreviations at the end are not sections but switches between Cyrillic encodings, a mandatory element of Russian websites of the nineties; the title page had no other content at the time.

An online store, circa 2007

By the mid-2000s the site had turned into a full-fledged storefront for a trading company. The top menu row offered the sections "Promotions," "Vacancies," "Partners," "Seminars," "Search," and FAQ, while the bottom navigation read "Home / About the Company / News / Online Store / Credit / For Dealers / Service Center / Special Projects"[2]. The product catalog was divided into sections: servers, laptops and accessories for them, office supplies, acoustics, software, scanners, modems, monitors, printers, consumables, active and passive network equipment, surge protectors, and uninterruptible power supplies[2]. On display were the HP LaserJet 1018 and 1020 laser printers and Genius SP-iE350 speakers rated at 10 W (RMS)[2].

The company's own news for July 2007 included: "Our phone numbers have changed" and "Half a monitor as a gift!" on July 23, "A budget offer on cartridges" on July 10, and "A budget offer on the Unicom computer" on July 6[2]. Unicom was the brand name of the company's own-assembly computers. As the home page reported, visitors had access to an "Online consultant" at the local number 9-053-523, and the footer carried the lines "VIST Company Copyright 2005-2007" and "Developed by Web Mekhanika"[2]. A separate column carried a feed of other companies' tech news — among the headlines for July 23, 2007, was "'Klondike Computers' is leaving the market"[2].

A change of content: the service center

Snapshots from 2011, 2012, and 2013 show the same domain hosting not a store but the website of the "Unicom Service" LLC service center: "The 'Unicom Service' team is glad to welcome you!"[3]. The menu consisted of the sections "Home," "About the Company," "News," "Reviews," "Vacancies," "Diagnostics," while the side column listed "For Corporate Clients," "Partner Program," "Bonus Program," "Warranty Repair," "Paid Repair," "Price List," "Repair Request," "Photo Gallery," "Q&A," and a site map[4]. An electronic order system was in operation: repair status could be checked by work-order number, and a separate section showed the average turnaround time for equipment repairs[5]. The contacts in the header remained unchanged: phone and fax +7 [831] 278-51-00, mail on the unicom.nnov.ru domain, address at 127 Vaneeva Street[5]. The design was credited to the PG DESIGN studio[4].

The last surviving version explains the connection between the domain's two faces. As the home page stated, "our enterprise traces its history back to 1997," when the service division of the "Vist" company received an offer from Samsung to set up an authorized service center for monitors, printers, and other equipment — at the time the only such center in the region[6]. Among the partners listed over twenty years were Philips, Viewsonic, CTX, Belinea, Kraftway, Rover, Mustek, APC, Prestigio, Epson, OKI, and Dell[6]. The same page states that as of early 2017 the number of devices repaired had exceeded 120,000, and the message to visitors was signed by General Director S. V. Anufriev[6]. By this time the menu had gained "Huawei Parts Catalog," "Diagnostics," "Drop-off Points," and "Service Programs," and the page text still carried an uncleared work schedule for June 2018[6].

Place in the Nizhny Novgorod internet, and closure

The site was among the participants of Counter.nn.ru, the Nizhny Novgorod counter and directory around which the local Nizhny Novgorod Internet held together. According to the rating summary used in our Archival study of the Nizhny Novgorod internet from the counter.nn.ru rating, vist.nnov.ru's score was 346. In the 2004 Nizhny Novgorod Internet Day vote, the site received 6 votes[7]; for a corporate site whose audience was buyers and dealers rather than regulars of the city's rating boards, this is an expectedly modest result.

The web archive preserved 80 captures of the address over twenty-one years. The last snapshot is dated February 5, 2020, and shows the service center's site still running[6]; the archival materials contain no information on the domain's subsequent fate.

Sources

  1. web.archive.org — Home page, 1999 (archive)
  2. web.archive.org — Home page, 2007 (archive)
  3. web.archive.org — Home page, 2011 (archive)
  4. web.archive.org — Home page, 2012 (archive)
  5. web.archive.org — Home page, 2013 (archive)
  6. web.archive.org — Home page, 2020 (archive)
  7. web.archive.org — Nizhny Novgorod Internet Day voting results, 2004 (archive)