Looking for the Web site of Noble Clay, makers of handcrafted porcelain pottery in Tenants Harbor, Maine? No, We Don't Have a Web Site -- which was originally inspired by a sign in that selfsame Noble Clay -- has been around for 2-1/2 years, and lots of people link to it. Thanks for that. But now that Noble Clay actually does have a Web site (and quite an elegant one at that), they are finding that people end up here instead of there after searching Google for their establishment. (Google ranks results based on the number of inbound links, you see.) So, all you fans of Noble Clay -- please link to them instead of to me. The rest of you fans of irreverent Net humor -- why, carry on.

 
meme that is spreading among small businesses is this notice posted in a visible public place:

w w w . n o w e d o n t h a v e a w e b s i t e . c o m

I first saw it at Noble Clay, a pottery studio in Tenants Harbor, Maine, in the late summer of 1998. The proprietors said they had become infected with the meme at a brewpub in Boston.

 
s it turns out, this domain name was available when I checked. Here was an opportunity to document the spread and mutation of one particular digital-age meme. I will collect here all the reported sightings of www.nowedonthaveawebsite.com -- and any other sarcastic, self-referential URL notices that crop up.

 
f you see this or a similar notice in a business or other public place, or in the media, please send it along! (Let me know if you prefer anonymity.)

Check out:

   = Businesses that claim not to have a Web site  [4]

   = Self-referential, bogus URLs in advertising  [8]

   = Bogus URLs used in media humor  [13]

   = Other self-referential, bogus URLs  [12]

This site is bought to you by the Technology Front, a consultancy solving problems at the nexus of business, technology, and marketing, and by its newsletter Tasty Bits from the Technology Front. Keith Dawson, perpetrator.

Most recently updated 2001-03-06