Mashups are an exciting genre of interactive Web applications and it comes under the broader picture of second generation of  web or better known as Web 2.0. Mashups are the creative hybrids when created from 2 or more external data sources and finally produces a new innovative product or services. Nowadays, there are various classes of Mashups being created for various consumer and business purposes. With the growing need, innovation and players, more and more Mashups are coming to our Mashups community.

There are many types of mashups, such as consumer mashups, enterprise mashups, data mashups, and business mashups. The most common type of mashup is the consumer mashup, aimed at the general public.
Data mashups combine similar types of media and information from multiple sources into a single representation. Enterprise Mashups are secure, visually rich web applications that expose actionable information from diverse internal and external information sources.

Mashups and portals are both content aggregation technologies. Though Portals represents the older concepts where the dynamic markup languages play the key part and makes different fragments over the web, popularly known as ‘Portlets’ but with Mashups this becomes a more hybrid way to mix multiple applications (rather APIs) to totally transform to a new creation.

There are different set of technologies available now to create such Mashups and out of that worth mentioning the Web 2.0 technology called ‘Ajax’

Ajax – Ajax is an acronym “Asynchronous JavaScript + XML”. Ajax is a Web application model rather than a specific technology. It comprises several technologies focused around the asynchronous loading and presentation of content:

      • XHTML and CSS for style presentation
      • The Document Object Model (DOM) API exposed by the browser for dynamic display and interaction
      • Asynchronous data exchange, typically of XML data
      • Browser-side scripting, primarily JavaScript

Mashups are certainly an exciting new genre of Web applications. The combination of data modeling technologies stemming from the Semantic Web domain and the maturation of loosely-coupled, service-oriented-architecture, platform-agnostic communication protocols is finally providing the infrastructure needed to start developing applications that can leverage and integrate the massive amount of information that is available on the Web.

If you surf the web, maybe you will not be aware that you actually are browsing over such a Mashup application site. These have become extremely popular and many such are based on Google Maps, Flickr and many other popular apps.

Some more examples for you:

Happn.in – Mashup of Google maps and local Twitter trends from Happn.in. This map will show the top 10 trending phrases in over 80+ major cities around the world.

Twitpickr.com – An easy way to upload your TwitPic images to Flickr. Uses APIs from Flickr, TwitPic and Twitter.

Mp32tube.com – Mp32tube allows YouTube users to easily upload mp3s on youtube.com, as YouTube does not allow this feature.

http://f1gmap.googlepages.com/f12009.html – Displays satellite images of all 2008 Formula One Grand Prix Circuits with race results and grand prix information.

Gympost.com – Fitness facility locator that shows gyms, athletic clubs, pilates studios, and other similar places on a Google Map.

Related worth reading could on Rich Internet Application

What is Web 2.0?

Web 2.0 is a concept phrase coined by O’Reilly Media that refers to a new generation of Internet based services that involve enhanced online collaboration among users.

Web 2.0 provides a new and enhanced makeover for the World Wide Web by providing users with an easier and a faster web. Web 2.0 makes use of the desktop applications at a greater level than the traditional version with static web pages. It makes use of a number of techniques that includes web syndication, AJAX, and public web service APIs. In web syndication, a part of the website is made available to be used by other sites. AJAX is used to create interactive web applications.

Web 2.0 also supports mass publishing like wikis and blogs. Wiki refers to a site that facilitates easy addition, removal and editing of the contents of a site, with or without registration. Blogs are publications of periodic articles on the web. Web 2.0 is often used to describe anything that is new and popular on the World Wide Web.

Technology Infrastructure of Web 2.0

Web 2.0 has a developing and complex technology infrastructure. The technology includes the use of content syndication, server software, standards-based browsers that have extensions and plugins, client applications, and messaging protocols. All these advanced technology provides Web 2.0 with dissemination, creation, and information storage capability. There are a number of major techniques that Web 2.0 website uses. Some of them include:

• Rich Internet Application techniques that are unobtrusive like AJAX. The Rich Internet Applications are the web applications having the traditional desktop applications functionality and features.
• CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) are used to describe the presentations of documents that are documented in a markup language. CSS describes them in a stylesheet language.
• Semantically valid XHTML markup and the application of Microformats. The Microformats are the markups that permit expression of semantics in an HTML web page.
• Proper aggregation and syndication of data in RSS/Atom. RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is mainly used by the news websites and weblogs for web syndication in XML.
• Significant and clean URLs.
• Publishing Weblogs. Weblogs are the web-based periodic publication of articles.
• Mashup, which is a web application or a site that merges content from various sources into an integral knowledge.
• REST or XML Webservice APIs. Representation State Transfer (REST) is a software architectural approach for dispersed hypermedia systems similar to the World Wide Web.

Most of the Web 2.0 websites attach great importance to the visual appeal and aesthetics of the site. To achieve such an effect, they make use of drop shadows, rounded corners, and gradients to make the site more appealing to the eyes.

America’s newest profession- Blogging

Did we know that in US, it’s the bloggers community that is growing rapidly and is considered to be a very powerful niche for fostering changes as well as generating income? Yes, America is a nation of almost 20 million bloggers and it is this one percent of independent-minded population that is growing more than firefighters, programmers and even lawyers. People are passionate about blogging as they can freely translate their emotion and ideas into words and actions. It is also considered as ushering a new era of cultural and social movement. Perhaps, with the rate at which blogging community is grown, days are not far when US will emerge as the most noisy and opinionated land of people in earth 

Out of this 20 million blogging population, it has been estimated that almost 1.7 million earns profit from the time they spend on writing, while for almost 452,000 people; it is the primary source of income.

The areas encompassed in blogging is wide and diverse ranging from arts and fashion to latest political controversies and social movement. You can always present an opinionated view with evergreen content. This has been possible just because the bloggers are quite educated. Statistics indicate that one out of three people who are bloggers are college graduates.

How serious blogging can be source of income?

Various reports indicate that to generate approximately $75,000 a year, 1 lac visitors per month becomes essential. Again, if writing your opinion is your passion, you can be rest assured that for a good post bloggers are paid in the range of $25-$200. Again, bloggers who work for corporate houses are paid in the range of $45,000-$90,000 in a year.

What is the revenue model underlying blogging?

It is on-line advertising that is the revenue model. On the blogging sites there will be ads and if consumers click on them bloggers make money. There are sites that pay writers on the basis of the clicks that is measured mostly be the traffic flow.

Flipside to blogging

Most bloggers are freelancers and what happens if they lose their job or the site is down? Are they subjected to legal suits? Will bloggers be considered as journalists?Again are there any group to rein these opinionated content? So the questions are many. Even people will cry out loud regarding the statistical reports, but then there is no denying the fact that Blogging is a growing niche. It is a micro-trend that will soon see many courses cropping up and institutes mushrooming to streamline and educate the educated ones

The blogosphere is reigning high. So keep blogging …

Rich web experience

Rich-Internet application (RIA) techniques such as AJAX, Adobe Flash and Flex have significantly improved user experience for browser-based web applications. Flash/Flex allows a part of the content of a web page to be altered without refreshing the whole page at the same time.

RIAs typically transfer the processing necessary for the user interface to the web client but keep the bulk of the data (i.e. maintaining the state of the program, the data etc) back on the application server.

RIAs typically:

• run in a web browser
• does not require software installation

Benefits of RIA

Because RIAs employ a client engine to interact with the user, they are:

• Richer.
• More responsive.
• Client/Server balance.
• Asynchronous communication.
• Network efficiency.

These benefits can be explained in detail:

Richer

They can offer user-interface behaviors not obtainable using only the HTML widgets available to standard browser-based Web applications. This richer functionality may include anything that can be implemented in the technology being used on the client side, including drag and drop, using a slider to change data, calculations performed only by the client and which do not need to be sent back to the server (e.g. an insurance rate calculator), etc.

More responsive

The interface behaviors are typically much more responsive than those of a standard Web browser that must always interact with the server.

Client/Server balance

The demand for client and server computing resources is better balanced, so that the Web server need not be the workhorse that it is with a traditional Web application. This frees server resources, allowing the same server hardware to handle more client sessions concurrently.

Asynchronous communication

The client engine can interact with the server asynchronously — that is, without waiting for the user to perform an interface action like clicking on a button or link. This option allows RIA designers to move data between the client and the server without making the user wait. Perhaps the most common application of this is pre-fetching, in which an application anticipates a future need for certain data, and downloads it to the client before the user requests it, thereby speeding up a subsequent response. Google Maps uses this technique to move adjacent map segments to the client before the user scrolls their view.

Network efficiency

The network traffic may also be significantly reduced because an application-specific client engine can be more intelligent than a standard Web browser when deciding what data needs to be exchanged with servers. This can speed up individual requests or responses because less data is being transferred for each interaction, and overall network load is reduced. However, use of asynchronous pre-fetching techniques can neutralize or even reverse this potential benefit. Because the code cannot anticipate exactly what every user will do next, it is common for such techniques to download extra data, not all of which is actually needed, to many or all clients.

There are thousands of companies in the RIA domain providing excellent innovative solutions to clients. Out of them, worth mentioning one company as it stands apart with its solutions, check out these @ Webspiders.com , a RIA based company.

Web 3.0

What is Web 3.0? It is still in a very nascent stage. The growth of Web 3.0 can be visualised if we take the different lines of debate on the definition of Web 3.0. Some says it is the future of World Wide Web, while others argue it as a mere development above Web 2.0, making the Web 3.0 more mature and durable. If we start from the start say Where Web 1.0 was a “read-only” web, where content was produced mostly by the organizations backing any given site, and with Web 2.0 it was an extension into the “read-write” web that engaged users in more participatory role, Web 3.0 could extend this one step further by using more intelligent software that utilize more semantic data. Some often says that the Semantic web will transform the web and lead to new possibilities in artificial intelligence. However other techies, journalists and visionaries believe that internet connection speed and modular graphics will dominate and play key roles.

In lay man’s language Web 3.0 is not about search, entertainment and shopping, it will generate business application. It will radically change the organisations where you work and can change your career path too. It is divided into three layers.

So expectedly Web 3.0 will eventually transform the whole Web into a database or distributed databases to create ‘World Wide Databases’. Web 3.0 will be evolutionary path to artificial intelligence, giving more ways to explore and bundle the Semantic Web and SOA, and it also revolutionize 3D and will enhance ‘Second Life’. API services forms the foundation layer of Web 3.0 topology. Aggregation Services form the middle layer and the application services form the top layer.

On the other hand, Web 3.0 also being talked about as possible convergence between Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) and semantic web. Nova Spivack thinks Web 3.0 to be the web of third decade which will include transformation of the web, ubiquitous connectivity, network computing, open technologies, distributed databases and intelligent applications.

Recently in a summit Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google mentioned “Web 2.0 is a marketing term, and I think you’ve just invented Web 3.0. But if I were to guess what Web 3.0 is, I would tell you that it’s a different way of building applications… My prediction would be that Web 3.0 will ultimately be seen as applications which are pieced together. There are a number of characteristics: the applications are relatively small, the data is in the cloud, the applications can run on any device, PC or mobile phone, the applications are very fast and they’re very customizable. Furthermore, the applications are distributed virally: literally by social networks, by email….”

If we are heading towards more versions of web beyond ‘Web 3.0’ and would go to ‘Web n.0’ or not, well… for that you need to check my posts … frequently.