Mashup Essentials

Find out what Mashups are all about.

A Mashup is a new type of web application that brings together several sources of data to form a unique new combination of information. Mashups originated from the world of pop music where DJs would mix two or more songs together to present a new blended version.

The Mashup phenomena has proliferated to other media including maps, photos, and videos. The great interest in Mashups stems not only from the usefulness that arises from the combined application but also from the novelty of viewing traditional information in a different way.

A classic example of a Mashup is the integration of business addresses and online maps so that you could quickly see where all the bookstores or hospitals are located in your neighborhood. Another map application can integrate all the homes for sale in a region and plot their location on a map. Clicking on a specific pushpin location brings up information on that particular home.

With Mashups you can listen to new hybrid music versions that are a combination of a couple of different songs.

Sites like Yahoo, eBay, Amazon and Google provide access to their data making it possible for developers to come up with all sorts of interesting applications that merge multiple sources of data.

VideoMashups.ca presents a gateway to the world of mashups, provides examples and links to other mashup applications as well as tools useful for developing your own mashups.  Use the list on the left side of this page to get more information on Mapping Mashups, Music Mashups, Photo Mashups, and Video Mashups.