More and more mashups are being created every day for travel maps, road trip planning, locating local businesses and an endless number of other applications.

You may or may not have heard of ‘mashups’ yet but this new software development model has already sprouted tons of sites which have emerged by combining content and services from different sources to create uniquely useful product and services.

So what are Mashups?

Wikipedia explains that: “In web development, a mashup is a Web application that combines data or functionality from two or more sources into a single integrated application. The term mashup implies easy, fast integration, frequently done by access to open APIs and data sources to produce results that were not the original reason for producing the raw source data. An example of a mashup is the use of cartographic data from Google Maps to add location information to real estate data, thereby creating a new and distinct Web service that was not originally provided by either source.”

Wiktionary shares a more concise explaination: “A derivative work consisting of two pieces of (generally digital) media conjoined together, such as a video clip with a different soundtrack applied for humorous effect, or a digital map overlaid with user-supplied data.”

Here’s a video that explains all about mashups:

( Note- It’s a bit technical at the start but after the core concepts of APIs are discussed, you’ll get a good idea of the amazing things that can be done with mashups)