A mashup is anything that results from a combination of data from different sources. Mashups could be accessed and found across the World Wide Web. It is considered to be one of the new types of web content today – an indication of the Web 2.0 phenomenon.

A mashup usually refers to the merging of two or more sets of content from different sources using a web application. A good example of a mashup site is the www.chicagocrime.org. This website is a result of the merging or “mashup” of Google maps and Chicago’s crime database.

Mashups have also been applied in real estate. Maps from a certain website are merged with data from another source so that information about houses for sale in a certain area could be produced using a virtual map.

Mashups today could be classified according to their content and sources. The most common types of mashups are as follows:

  • Mapping mashups
  • News mashups
  • Video and photo mashups
  • Shopping and search mashups

Brief History of Mashups

During the early days of mashups, programmers usually had to screen scrape websites just to obtain useful data. Today, major players such as Google, Microsoft and Yahoo have allowed users and mashup creators to utilize their maps for their applications in the hopes of getting more exposure for their products and to gain deeper market penetration and wider market distribution. This has opened the gates for the increasing rate of mashup site creation.

How a Mashup Works

Mashups usually rely on the web applications that allow web pages to be updated real time without the need to refresh the entire page on every update.

The mashup succeeds if three components successfully connects and collaborates to be able to come up with a good mashup. The components are the client’s browser, the mashup website, and the online data sources or the API providers. Mashups work in different ways.

Mapping mashups requires a mapping source which could provide a visual presentation of the area or location that is involved in the process. The source for the type of data or information that the mashup will contain is also required. This data will then be plotted on the map in a graphical or visual manner by the application.

News mashups work on the concept of putting up a specific collection of news that a certain user or client wants or usually prefers and then presents them in one collective method.

Video and photo mashups rely on photo and video content providers together with another data source that could provide any information that could be related to such multimedia content. These could include the places or locations of photos and videos taken. These locations or addresses could then be used for geographical plotting for visual reference.

Shopping and search mashups works on the idea of comparing product prices and specifications using a search method. The search results from various online sources could then be compiled or mashed-up for the surfer’s convenience.