Mashup --what is it?

[palla sridhar]

Hello Jeff Hanson,
Very nice to see you offer the book on Java Ranch.

But to be very clear, I'm very new to this Mashup.
I'm only a Java, JEE developer.

Can you please give me a short note on this Mash up?
Where is it used?
Is it a programming language?
What is the potential of this ?
Is it useful for developers?
Can you give me further links to develop my knowledge on this?

[Bear Bibeault]

Google is your friend.

[Saifuddin Merchant]

Bear Bibeault wrote:Google is your friend.

Shouldn't it be Wikipedia is your friend - too?

[Bear Bibeault]

Sam Mercs wrote:Shouldn't it be Wikipedia is your friend - too?

The Wikipedia entry was the first Google hit.

[Saifuddin Merchant]

I know I was just kidding - The fact is, that I find myself doing a Google search so that I can find the Wikipedia link to the topic. Habit I guess.
Wikipedia is a really good place to look up new terms - I find most of the new terms that I encounter covered out there!!

[Jeffrey Hanson]

A mashup is a software engineering concept where two or more entities (UI artifacts, processes, blocks of data, etc.) are combined to form a new and unique entity (UI artifact, service, block of data, etc.). The name was borrowed from the music industry where two songs are combined to create a new song. The quintessential mashup in software engineering involves combining data, such as crime statistics or home prices, with geocoded data to create a user interface that visualizes the given data on a map. Mashups are typically created using on-demand JavaScript, HTML snippets, Ajax, JSON, etc. However, server-side mashups, especially in the enterprise realm, use formal programming languages and methodologies.