Like many publishers, The Financial Times used to treat its error page as an afterthought. Readers would land on when an article couldn’t be found. It was polite and had utilitarian value, but was drab and lacked personality. Last year, however, the British newspaper rolled out a new 404 page that espouses a clever list of economic theories why the page wasn’t found. The page is a result of a new unit: FT Labs. Labs is charged with tackling projects big and small that don’t fit into the normal development processes.
