Mashups

Definition of: mashup

A mixture of content or elements. For example, an application that was built from routines from multiple sources or a Web site that combines content and/or scripts from multiple sources is said to be a mashup. The term became popular in the 2005 time frame.

Mashup Contest

Set up as a competition, the first "Mashup Camp" was sponsored by Adobe, AOL, Sun, Microsoft, Google, Yahoo! and others. It was hosted at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California in February 2006. The winning mashup was Podbop (www.Podbop.org), which combined a concert event locator site with MP3 samples of the upcoming bands. Second place went to ChicagoCrime.org (www.chicagocrime.org), which showed crime locations in Chicago by mashing up the crime data with Google Maps.

Internet "mashup's"

A mashup is a website or web application that seamlessly combines content from more than one source into an integrated experience.

Content used in mashups is typically sourced from a third party via a public interface or API. Other methods of sourcing content for mashups include Web feeds (e.g. RSS or Atom) and Javascript.

Many people are experimenting with mashups using eBay, Amazon, Google, Windows Live, and Yahoos APIs

So far, mash-up business models don't extend beyond running a few Google ads and collecting fees for sending buyers to e-commerce sites. One reason is that most Web sites don't allow for-profit use of their data by outsiders. But as traffic to mash-ups grows, companies may cut deals -- especially if mash-up sites spur new markets. Map-based mash-ups, for instance, might finally attract ultra-local businesses to advertise on the Web.

see software Ajax

Articles about mashups:

business week 2005 - mashups

cnet news - mashups

Companies

Mashery, a mashup company, raises less than $5M

San Francisco start-up Mashery has raised another round of capital to help Web companies open their platforms so that developers can build applications on top of them.

By releasing an API, or Application Programming Interface, a company can allow “mashups” of its data, and gain reach across the Web. Google did this with Google Maps, for example, mixing them with everything from housing to restaurant information. Now all sorts of businesses — banks for example — are doing this with more sensitive information, some of it requiring significant management of terms and conditions.  The amount was undisclosed, but we’ve heard it was less than $5 million.

The latest funding comes from the Formative Ventures and The Accelerator Group, as well a