Do you remember mashups? You know, web apps that combine data from two unrelated sources to make something new? They were quite the internet meme in 2005. As much as I would like this post to be about musical mashups in the hit television show Glee, it’s probably not the reason you stopped by our blog today.
Back when web mashups were newsmakers, I was living in San Francisco and looking for an apartment on Craigslist; HousingMaps.com came to my rescue. The site simply combines the functionality of Craigslist’s apartment listings and the visual capabilities of Google Maps to produce something completely different. This free service, unaffiliated with either data provider, saved me hours of search time.
Other mashups combine taxi fares with Google Maps, The Weather Channel with Google Maps, and Zappos’ sales with Google Maps. Are you noticing a trend? Apparently it’s never too difficult to develop a fun or useful mashup idea using Google Maps. This makes sense, as searching for a map or driving directions is consistently ranked as one of the most used and useful internet functions.
How can we relate this to social media? One recent mashup, Infinite Comic, takes user-generated keywords to create a comic out of random tweets and pictures from Flickr. Useful? No. Mildy amusing? Yes. (See this comic for mild amusement.) I don’t think this website will be putting any web comics like Theater Hopper out of business, but potential certainly exists to combine social media data with other data.
What new mashup apps would you like to see in the next few months?
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Jarad,
Great post. We just released another map mashup that lets you add all your travel items to a map. Here’s a trip folder we created for events, hotels and restaurants for a Lakers game – http://bit.ly/53RQEc. It works with any U.S. location and simplifies the process of finding things near your destination when you travel.
Paul,
Thank you for sharing your new site. I have seen weaker mashups specifically for wedding planning, but GoWaza looks to have much more behind it and, of course, is not limited to weddings. Thank you for your comment.