Blog homeI like the concept of mashups (which is combining data from multiple sources in order to create a new entity – which itself is “greater than the sum of its parts”). Mashups can tend to be created at two levels – but Intel are pushing a 3rd level:
- At “back end” level – for example taking flights from an airline and hotels from a hotel bed bank – and joining to undertake dynamic packaging of a new “holiday”
- At “web” level – for example taking maps from Google and location data held within JavaScript (or on the server, accessed by AJAX) - and letting the web browser join the data together.
- At “web” level – but under user control. It is this 3rd layer that Intel Mash Maker is working at
One of the examples that Intel are using to demonstrate their software is a mashup of Expedia and seat pitch information from Westernair
Watch the video (Windows media format)
As an improvement, I would take the seat pitch information from SeatGuru as they have seat pitch information by aircraft type – rather than by airline.
This will need to be something that travel companies will have to keep an eye on – because you could probably find some valuable information about what consumers want by looking at what kind of mashups are being built using your website without your knowledge. For example, now we know that seat pitch could be a decision factor between difficult to differentiate flights. (OK, maybe we knew that before)
If you are into this kind of web technology, take a look at Dapper – they look like they are creating, through community effort, a nice way to create similar mashups.
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Also worth checking out is AlchemyPoint, an end-user mashup platform that offers similar capabilities to MashMaker, and a number of features not found anywhere else (visually copying / pasting web content, natural-language-based content scraping, etc.)
Elliot,
Thanks! (yes I had noted that Alchemy Point is your own product). If you have any interesting travel examples you want highlighted then drop me an email or add a further comment to this post.
Thanks.
Alex