Mashup (web application hybrid)
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In technology, a mashup is a web application that combines data from more than one source into a single integrated tool; an example is the use of cartographic data from Google Maps to add location information to real-estate data, thereby creating a new and distinct web service that was not originally provided by either source.
Mashup originally referred to the practice in pop music (notably hip-hop) of producing a new song by mixing two or more existing pieces together.
Overview
Content used in mashups is typically obtained from a third party source through a public interface or API (web services). Other methods of obtaining content for mashups include Web feeds (e.g. RSS or Atom), and screen scraping. Many people are experimenting with mashups using Amazon, eBay, Flickr, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and YouTube APIs, which has led to the creation of mashup editors.
A mashup or meshup Web application has two parts:
- A new service delivered through a Web page, using its own data and data from other sources.
- The blended data, made available across the Web through an API or other protocols such as HTTP, RSS, REST, etc.
The client generally accesses the mashup by using a Web browser displaying a Web page containing the mashup. Various mashup platforms support the emission of RSS, Web Services, instant messages or email messages, which are in turn consumed by feed readers, rich applications, IM clients, or email clients respectively.
Mashups and meshups are different from simple embedding of data from another site to form a compound page. A site that allows a user to embed a YouTube video for instance, is not a mashup site. A mashup or meshup site must access third-party data and process that data to add value for the site's users. Mashups typically "screen-scrape" or use other brute-force methods to access the untyped linked data; meshups typically use APIs to access typed linked data.
Mashup editors
There are already several mashup platforms that help user create mashups. Examples include (alphabetically):
- Microsoft Popfly
- Google Mashup Editor
- IBM Sharable Code
- IBM DAMIA
- IBM Qed Wiki
- JackBe
- Kapow Robosuite
- Microsoft Popfly
- Open Mashups
- Yahoo pipes
- zembly
See also
