A mashup is a general term that is commonly used to describe the merging of functionality and content from multiple sources. It is typically applied to describe the merging of web applications where the sources may often be using different technology to provide the service or application. As part of the distinction of a web application mashup, there is a common feature that provides connectivity, which is the Internet.
The connections between the various sources may require different levels and complexities of integration, depending on whether the associated information or content is to be simply viewed or whether it is also to be amended, and therefore whether data is to be distributed across various systems. When mashups first started appearing on the Web, they were created to enable the viewing of content from another web source within an Internet browser, and did not transfer any data or functionality between the source systems.
An example of such...