Tuesday, April 22, 2008

mashups here we come

According to techcruch, Intel has just released an experimental piece of software from Intel labs called MashMaker. It functions as a plugin for Firefox and Explorer and appears to:

1. Allow users to create their own mashups, and
2. Show users browsing available mashups for the sites they are visiting.

You can already use Google to create mashups and I anticipate this being a big thing once it gains leverage. From my understanding coding a mashup is not an overly complex technical task (on par or easier than a widget), and thus we can expect a number of mashups surfacing in the future. Most of the mashups that I have seen leverage mapping software or other related data with websites. For example, you can overlay crime statistics with craigs list.

This meta-web activity, has the potential to allow people an incredible degree of customization in their web experience and will also probably give birth to new products and internet paradigms.

The fact that a powerhouse like Intel is behind this application speaks to promise of this product at its infancy and likelihood of mashups becoming much more widespread. Maybe its web^2.0

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