What are mashup web tools?

Mashup web tools are online applications that have multiple functions. Thus with a mash up web tool like Present.me the user can upload images, add text, music and  narration, and then create a multi-media slide show presentation or movie.

This is the definition of a mash up according  to Wikipedia:

"The main characteristics of the mashup are combination, visualization, and aggregation. It is important to make existing data more useful, moreover for personal and professional use. To be able to permanently access the data of other services, mashups are generally client applications or hosted online."

"In the past years, more and more Web applications have published APIs that enable software developers to easily integrate data and functions instead of building them by themselves. Mashups can be considered to have an active role in the evolution of social software and Web 2.0. Mashup composition tools are usually simple enough to be used by end-users. They generally do not require programming skills and rather support visual wiring of GUI widgets, services and components together. Therefore, these tools contribute to a new vision of the Web, where users are able to contribute.The term mashup is also used to describe a remix[1] of digital data."


Click here to see an explanation of a mashup published on YouTube.

Click here for more information about mashup tools.

On the next post we will further discuss the mashup tool, Present.me .