What is it?
A 'mashup' is a software application or website that integrates content from multiple sources into a single, seamless experience. Mashups employ open standard public interfaces or APIs, Web technologies such as RSS JavaScript, XML and Ajax to rapidly integrate various types of content on the fly at the point of consumption.
Initially, the mashup trend was conceived and driven by end users who were keen to build useful applications around established Web applications such as Google, eBay, and Amazon. Many of the early examples combined Web information sources with Google Maps to create simple Geographic Information Systems (GIS) – for example HousingMaps.com, an application that overlaid accommodation listings from the Craigslist community portal onto maps. Applications that combine data with maps remain the most established class of mashup.
Mashups are considered a part of the Web 2.0 umbrella, and just like other user-driven technologies such as blogs and wikis, mashups are now beginning to receive serious consideration within the enterprise. Here we focus primarily on the value of mashups for businesses rather than the myriad examples being generated by the end-user community.
In particular, enterprises have been attracted by the relative ease of creating and integrating applications in contrast with established formal and considered enterprise application integration and service oriented architecture (SOA) projects. Some have suggested that mashups may become so simple to create that individuals with no technical IT knowledge can create applications tailored to their own needs.
Much of the current hype suggests that the rise of mashups signifies that meaningful software reuse and content repurposing is here at last.
To learn more about software mashups, download our full Foresight PDF file (
241Kb; opens in a new window).
