8th blog

A couple weeks ago a big topic we discussed in class was mash-ups. A mashup is a webpage or application that combines data or functionality from two or more external websites or sources to create a new service. Basically its a mixture of content or elements. Anyone can create one of these if they fool around with it long enough.

One of the newest uses for mashups is Twitter. Since Twitter has become so popular almost instantly, all stars, celebrities, TV shows, and even stores have multiple accounts now. Twitter is a way to market, and advertise fast and efficiently. I have been following Wendy's MI account and I received a free $10 gift card just for being one of the first 100,000 followers. There are several mashup applications that I have come across. One of my favorites is http://tweetstats.com/ because this allows you to see favorite tweets and graph what is most popular so that you can change around what you are saying or how often and keep rising up. This is great for large companies.

TwitSpy is another really useful and cool twitter mashup application. This put's real time tweets from the public timeline into a Google map and marks them with a pop up that shows the default picture, how many followers that person (etc.) has and more. You can zoom in closer on the map and all. I recommend checking some of these Twitter mashups out. They make life more simple, lol.

Mashups

A couple weeks ago, we talked about web mashups in class. Personally, I think that mashups are amazing. To be able to put two different sources together to make one great source is a really great advancement in out technology. The Data Mashups are more commonly used for the public and an example of this would be wikipediavision, which is google maps and wikipedia API. Now, someone might want to know how to make one, and I will tell you.
Obviously, you need to pick what you want to mashup first. And then you need to figure what you are going to put together. You need to keep in mind though while doing this how good you are at working with computers. If you are slow, then it will take longer to actually make the mashup. You will also need to sign up for an API, because you need permission to do your mashup. Finally, you are ready to make your mashup. This process really isn't that difficult, and many people will be able to do it.
Because making mashups is so easy, I have a feeling that they will become a lot more popular in the coming years. Before they were mentioned in class, I, personally, had never heard of them before. Mashups are a great idea and will making using the Internet so much easier. I hate it when I have to go to twenty different sites to find something. With mashups, that really wont be a problem anymore. Hopefully, eventually enough people will start using them so that any obvious ones are already out there for people to use. All in all, they make everything so much easier, and when using computers, that is what I believe most people want.

Web Mashups

Put two or more web applications together and what do you get? A web-mashup!

Part of how Web 2.0 is changing the way people interact with the Internet is in the creation of web-mashups. Want to know what there is to eat in a specific area? Try Foodio54. Foodio54 provides you with a list of restaurants within a radius (that you specify), of where you would like to eat. You can even tell it what type of restaurant you are looking for and have it exclude fast-food joints if you are in more of the sit-down type mood. You also have the option of subscribing to their site, which gives you the added bonus of Foodio54 learning about your eating habits and making personalized recommendations for you!

Or, maybe you are going on a vacation, and want to know the base price of hotels in a given area, what restaurants are nearby, if there are any landmarks, even how many and the locations of the Starbucks in the area. You could give HotelMapSearch.com a try. It will show you on a Google map right where these services are located.

These are just a few of the mashups that I found while on a web-site called Webmashups.com. They have lists of sites that utilize mashup technology, based on categories such as: food, music, sports, mapping, etc.

The Internet is getting a whole lot more interactive!