Example.com just launched the biggest redesign in decades
Points and comments are a snapshot, not live.
Example.com's latest redesign introduced multi-language support, then quickly removed the language rotation animation.
Example.com, reserved by IANA for documentation, underwent a major redesign on September 28, 2026, adding JavaScript-based multi-language support that rotated English, Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, and Spanish every 5 seconds with a character-by-character opacity transition. By October 3, 2026, the animation was removed to show all languages statically. IANA stated the changes aimed to reduce bandwidth, noting most traffic is automated and won't fetch the JavaScript. The article traces the site's evolution from January 2002 through infrastructure shifts, CDN migrations, and visual redesigns, highlighting that example.com is not a reliable service for testing or monitoring.
What commenters are saying
Commenters were split on the redesign's localization approach. Many criticized the rotating language animation as inaccessible and confusing, and were relieved when it was removed in favor of displaying all translations statically. Some suggested using IP geolocation or the Accept-Language header instead of a fixed rotation, while others noted IANA's bandwidth concerns justified keeping it simple. Several users admitted to using example.com for captive portal detection or network testing, despite IANA's warnings against relying on it as a service. A few pointed out that the SVG icon is injected by JavaScript, and verified it disappears when JS is disabled.