The 404 or Not Found error message is an HTTP standard response code indicating that the client was able to communicate with the server, but the server either could not find what was requested, or it was configured not to fulfill the request and not reveal the reason why.
In the code 404, the first 4 indicates a client error, such as a mistyped URL. The following two digits indicate the specific error encountered.Each response code has an associated string of English text that must also be present.
A 404 error is often returned when pages have been moved or deleted.
Some websites report a ﹝not found﹞error by returning a standard web page with a ﹝200 OK﹞ response code; this is called a soft 404. Soft 404s are problematic for automated methods of discovering if a link is broken or not. A heuristic for identifying soft 404s was given by Bar-Yossef, et al.
In July 2004, the UK telecom provider BT Group implemented the Cleanfeed content blocking system, which returns a 404 error to any request for content identified as illegal by the Internet Watch Foundation. Governments that censor the Internet also often return a fake 404 error when a user tries to access a blocked website.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/404_error