10 Great Error Messages

Let’s start with a classic: the error message that isn’t. If only all error messages could be this harmlessly elliptical.

This is one of many computer error messages that illustrate the clash between human logic and computer logic. While the need to delete before you can delete because there's not enough room to delete makes perfect sense to Windows, it’s mind-bending for the average user.

When your computer's attempt to describe an error generates a new error, you know that something has gone very wrong with the system.

When those errors keep causing errors, it’s as though the computer has switched you over to a video game. The challenge: Can you press Enter fast enough to make your PC usable again? (Hint: You can’t.)

Windows-based PCs aren't the only machines that occasionally present users with error messages demanding action that exceeds our puny mortal powers. Game consoles can be just as confounding.

If nothing else, error messages have become more empathetic in recent years. Chrome’s Web page display error, with its note of disappointed commiseration, is fast becoming my new Blue Screen of Death.

In general, Google tends to have amusing error messages. This classic Google Reader error is short, sweet, to the point--and copyrighted!

One of the most common error messages of the Web-centric era is the 404 error. Plenty of sites have original takes on the classic "Page Not Found" announcement, as in this example from game seller Dawdle.

Sometimes a cute image alone isn't enough. Here, music-streaming service Grooveshark is kind enough to provide a lengthy explanation for its downtime that involves some Chinese investors and a hungry panda named Pickles.

After a rash of downtime toward the end of last year, Webcomic The Oatmeal suggested that Tumblr adopt its own equivalent of Twitter’s Fail Whale. The best part? Tumblr now uses it.

10 Great Error Messages