example-petstore.com

Example domain · Not a live service · Browser visits show this page · API requests get 410 Gone

History

The history of example-petstore.com

example-petstore.com first appeared in March 2009, in Google’s Classic Analytics documentation. Over the next fifteen years it moved through three generations of Google documentation and into countless copies. Every date below comes from an archived source.

Before 2009

Google’s early Analytics documentation used other names. The help article on third-party shopping carts used www.mystore.com and www.securecart.com from at least 2007 to 2010, and every archived version of the earlier Classic Analytics guide “Domains & Directories”, up to 1 March 2009, contains no pet store.

Classic Analytics, 2009–2024

  1. March 2009 — Google reorganises its Classic Analytics (ga.js) documentation into a new tracking/ section. The rewritten guide “Tracking Multiple Domains”, first archived on 27 March 2009, introduces www.example-petstore.com with the subdomains dogs. and cats., a cart at www.example-commerce-host.com/petStoreCart, and code such as _setDomainName(".example-petstore.com") and _linkByPost('www.example-commerce-host.com/petStoreCart/begin.php'). It mentions the pet store 18 times.
  2. 2011 — the help article on third-party shopping carts switches to the same pair: www.example-petstore.com and www.example-commerce-host.com/petStoreCart.
  3. 2013–2014 — the asynchronous version of the guide on developers.google.com shows _gaq.push(['_setDomainName', 'example-petstore.com']) and the link “See my pet store” to http://dogs.example-petstore.com/intro.html.
  4. 1 July 2024 — the Classic and Universal Analytics documentation is retired together with Universal Analytics.

SEO documentation, 2014–2019

  1. September 2014 — the first documentation for the sitelinks search box uses "url": "https://www.example-petstore.com/" with the target host.example-petstore.com/search?q={search_term}, until late September 2014.
  2. October 2014 to mid-2015 — the best-known version uses query.example-petstore.com/search?q={search_term_string}, along with the text examples www.example-petstore.com/search?q=collars and …?q=leashes.
  3. October 2014 to March 2015 — the Search Console help on the Change of Address tool uses a move from www.example-petstore.com to www.example.com.
  4. April 2015 to at least September 2019 — the same help uses a move from http://fish.example-petstore.com to http://example.com or http://example-petstore.com. Its successor uses example.com only.
  5. By September 2015 — Google’s structured data documentation switches to example.com.

Current documentation

Google’s current guide “Measure activity across multiple domains” for the Google tag still opens with a website at example-petstore.com whose shop runs on example-commerce-host.com/example-petstore. The sentence was already on its predecessor page in March 2021. The code samples use example.com, and the domain names are left unchanged in every translation of the page.

Copies and translations

  • July 2009 — a Google Groups thread quotes the petStoreCart/legalTerms.php snippet, the earliest third-party copy found.
  • 2009–2010 — Chinese and French analytics blogs reuse dogs./cats.example-petstore.com and example-commerce-host.com/petStoreCart without translating them.
  • April 2013 — a WooCommerce feature request contains _gaq.push(['_setDomainName', 'example-petstore.com']);, pasted unchanged.
  • 2014–2019 — SEO blogs (among them Semrush and LCN, 2015), forums and at least five Stack Overflow questions copy the search box markup with query.example-petstore.com.
  • 2019 — German exam preparation material translates the store into www.example-zoohandlung.de but keeps www.example-commerce-host.com/example-zoohandlung/.

No software product was found that ships these domains as a default setting. Copies come from pasted snippets.

Endings

  1. 1 July 2023 — standard Universal Analytics properties stop processing data (360 properties on 1 July 2024); Classic Analytics code has no effect either.
  2. 1 July 2024 — Universal Analytics is switched off and its documentation retired.
  3. 21 November 2024 — Google stops showing the sitelinks search box.

Sources