A lab(s) website is a specific type of

website A website (also written as a web site) is any web page whose content is identified by a common domain name and is published on at least one web server. Websites are typically dedicated to a particular topic or purpose, such as news, educatio ...

most commonly dedicated to research and development programs. Relating to the classic scientific research environment - the

laboratory A laboratory (; ; colloquially lab) is a facility that provides controlled conditions in which scientific or technological research, experiments, and measurement may be performed. Laboratories are found in a variety of settings such as schools ...

- existing lab websites predominantly fall into two categories, the real-world and the virtual.

Real-world laboratory websites

Real-world lab sites relate to the activities and research conducted by laboratories existing outside the Internet. In general, these sites tend to offer users a chance to see results of past research, rather than detailed views of contemporary research. Examples of these types of labs from the aviation world include Boeing’s Phantom Works, which covers the research arm of the Boeing Corporation, and Lockheed Martin's Advanced Development Program, aka

Skunk Works Skunk Works is an official pseudonym for Lockheed Martin's Advanced Development Programs (ADP), formerly called Lockheed Advanced Development Projects. It is responsible for a number of aircraft designs, highly classified research and developme ...

Virtual laboratory websites

A number of companies and institutions have created virtual lab websites specifically for research into Internet-based products. This research environment is seen as both podium and a playpen for Internet-borne companies. In many cases, the labs offer visitors a chance to learn more about the company's products currently in development and to try the work in progress. One of the best-known examples is Google Labs. Since its inception, Google Labs has resulted in the trial and launch of live products such as

Gmail Gmail is the email service provided by Google. it had 1.5 billion active user (computing), users worldwide, making it the largest email service in the world. It also provides a webmail interface, accessible through a web browser, and is also ...

Google Calendar Google Calendar is a time-management and scheduling calendar service developed by Google. It was created by Mike Samuel as part of his 20% project at Google. It became available in Software release life cycle#Beta, beta release April 13, 2006, ...

, and

Google Videos Google Search (also known simply as Google or Google.com) is a search engine operated by Google. It allows users to search for information on the Web by entering keywords or phrases. Google Search uses algorithms to analyze and rank websites ...

. Similar examples from large web-based companies include Yahoo! Next and Microsoft Live Labs. One recent notable addition is Digg Labs, illustrating the

Digg Digg (stylized in lowercase as digg) is an American news aggregator with a curated front page, aiming to select articles specifically for the Internet audience such as science, trending political issues, and viral phenomenon, viral Internet iss ...

social bookmarking Social bookmarking is an online service which allows users to add, annotate, edit, and share Internet bookmark, bookmarks of web documents. Many online bookmark management services have launched since 1996; Delicious (website), Delicious, founded i ...

community's activities in near real-time. The labs are composed of the swarm and the stack activity displays.

Mozilla Mozilla is a free software community founded in 1998 by members of Netscape. The Mozilla community uses, develops, publishes and supports Mozilla products, thereby promoting free software and open standards. The community is supported institution ...

has added a lab area to its product offering. Virtual laboratories are not the sole domain of companies and institutions. Some are created by individuals and exist solely as

websites A website (also written as a web site) is any web page whose content is identified by a common domain name and is published on at least one web server. Websites are typically dedicated to a particular topic or purpose, such as news, education ...

Media labs

Traditional print and broadcast media companies have also begun to experiment with dedicating specific areas on their websites to advanced projects. One of the first companies credited with creating its own lab area was

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide writing in 16 languages. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency ...

. When founded, the Reuters lab offered a limited number of products for visitors to experiment with, including the news and quotes widget and their mobile service. The

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

has created a derivation on the lab idea with their BBC Backstage site. Backstage's slogan "Use our stuff to build your stuff" openly invites developers to use the BBC's various feeds and API's to power a new range of non-commercial products and services. The backstage site has allowed the BBC to create a developer network, a location for all those working with the BBC's content to come together and share their ideas and prototypes amongst their peers. The site also contains a blog. ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' newspaper in the UK has taken the idea of a lab to the next level with its Comment is free product. Created by

Ben Hammersley Ben Hammersley FRSA FRGS (born 3 April 1976) is a British consultant, broadcaster, and systems developer. Hammersley is known for coining the term ''podcast'' in 2004. Education Hammersley is the eldest of three children and was educated at ...

, Comment is Free was made as a fully interactive extension to the Guardian Unlimited’s blogging system. The site contains the political and opinion material from both ''The Guardian'' and its sister paper ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. First published in 1791, it is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper. In 1993 it was acquired by Guardian Media Group Limited, and operated as a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' ...

'', as well as work from over 600 separate subject-based experts, selected to write on their topics of knowledge. Users are encouraged to read and comment, and all posts are automatically linked to

Technorati Technorati is a search engine and a publisher advertising platform. Technorati launched its ad network in 2008. In 2016, Synacor acquired Technorati for $3 million. The company's core product was previously an Internet search engine for search ...

to return contextual blogosphere results. In November 2006, NEWS.com.au, the breaking news section of News Digital Media launched News Lab, the first media-driven R&D website within News Corporation (N.B. News Corp also operates FIM Lab but this is currently without a website). The site aims to collect users' feedback on new products and amend them accordingly.

Monitoring experimentation

While some media companies choose to create their own experimental areas, others create dedicated areas to document the efforts of others. ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

s blog section, referred to as the Mashington Post records the efforts of Internet users' experimentation with combinations of pre-existing data, referred to as mashups.

References

{{Websites template, state=collapsed Websites

Website A website (also written as a web site) is any web page whose content is identified by a common domain name and is published on at least one web server. Websites are typically dedicated to a particular topic or purpose, such as news, educatio ...

Experiments