April 1997 > E Ink, for the development of an electronic ink In April 1997, researchers at the MIT Media Lab (MIT: Massachusetts Institute of Technology) created the company E Ink to develop an electronic ink technology. Very briefly, the technology was the following one: caught between two sheets of flexible plastic, millions of micro-capsules, each of them containing black and white particles, are in suspension in a clear fluid. A positive or negative electric field indicates the desired group of particles on the surface, to view, modify or delete data. In July 2002, E Ink showed the prototype of the first screen using this technology. This screen was marketed in 2004. Other screens followed for various reading devices, including the first black and white flexible displays announcing the forthcoming "electronic paper". May 1997 > Barnes & Noble launched its own online bookstore Barnes & Noble, a leading bookseller with 481 stores nationwide in the United States, entered the world of e-commerce in 1997. Barnes & Noble first launched its America OnLine (AOL) website in March 1997 - as the exclusive bookseller for 12 million AOL customers -, before launching its own website, barnesandnoble.com, in May 1997. The site was offering reviews from authors and publishers, with a catalog of 630,000 titles available for immediate shipping, and significant discounts: 30% off all in-stock hardcovers, 20% off all in-stock paperbacks, 40% off select titles, and up to 90% off bargain books. Its Affiliate Network spread quickly, with 12,000 affiliate websites in May 1998, including CNN Interactive, Lycos, and ZDNet. June 1997 > 82.3% English-speaking internet users The percentage of English-speaking internet users decreased from nearly 100% in 1983 to 82.3% in June 1997. People from all over the world began to have access to the internet, and to post more and more webpages in their own languages. The first major study about language distribution on the web was run by Babel, a joint initiative from Alis Technologies, a company specializing in language translation services, and the Internet Society. The results were published in June 1997 on a webpage named "Web Languages Hit Parade". The main languages were English with 82.3%, German with 4.0%, Japanese with 1.6%, French with 1.5%, Spanish with 1.1%, Swedish with 1.1%, and Italian with 1.0%. 1997 > The digitization of print books