Lookee here! One of the first web pages in existence. On August 7th, 1991, CERN researcher Tim Berners-Lee published a description of his World Wide Web project on the newsgroup alt.hypertext, and made the service publicly available.

http://www.w3.org/History/19921103-hypertext/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html

The Sample Lab

In Tokyo’s iceberg building in Harajuku, there is a new business operation that benefits consumers and manufacturers in a novel way. For a membership fee, patrons can sample electronics, food, beauty products and more. The “try before you buy” salon allows members to take home up to 5 items per visit as well. The samplings include unreleased and innovative items, which means that companies have a new may to test-market their new products (Visitors are asked to fill out surveys after each testing session.) As cool an idea as this is for consumers, it is really a marketing scheme intended to collect user feedback and spark word-of-mouth advertising. I wish I could try it.