Mashups

I'm seeing an increasing number of "mashups," aka web application hybrids, hit the Web 2.0 scene, and it's really exciting stuff IMHO.

Before I go into some of them, I should probably define mashups, as I've found that many people don't know what they are (you can also find the Wikipedia definition in the hotlink above this paragraph). In a nutshell, if you think about web services as being advertised bits of code that deliver useful functionality (a perfect example is Google maps), then a mashup is taking a web service and combining it with one or more ("mashing them up") in order to create new functionality.

A good example of a mashup would be to combine Google maps with mobile telephone "dead zones" (either provided directly by the cell providers but most likely generated by public contributions--e.g. if you get dropped every day on your way to work, you go to a web site and enter the coordinates of the dead zone). You could then combine this database with Google maps and plot out exactly where you could expect to get poor coverage, even if you've never driven the road.

Other intriguing mashups (which may or may not actually be technically possible) would be combining Yahoo's new Web email client with 37 signal's BaseCamp project management software--a project manager could input tasks and then export them to Yahoo -- a poor man's version of Exchange, with no Microsoft software required.

Another mashup might be to interface various sources of public data, like weather, with a securities trading system to enable investors to make even faster buy/sell decisions based on many different variables.

I read about another intriguing mashup, along the lines of the first example: combining WiFi hotspot information in airports with AC outlet locations--and make it accessible from a wireless phone, so you could determine very quickly the best place to "park" yourself while waiting for a flight.

There is a Mashup Camp taking place February 20-21 in Mountain View, CA, for those hard-core mashup types that would like to cross-pollinate their mashup ideas, and for the record, a couple of the ideas above came from their web site.