Are you ready for the mashup?

If there’s one new web term that you need to be aware of in 2008, it’s ‘Mashup’.

The travel industry is one of the few sectors really leading the way with this emerging technology and it’s important to get clued up now to avoid being left behind.

If the phrase sounds familiar, that’s because ‘mashup’ has been borrowed from the music business where it refers to the practice of mixing a new song by using elements from others. In the online world it refers to taking content and services from a number of online resources in order to make a new website or online service.

This manifests itself in a number of ways. Usually it involves a web site ‘borrowing’ elements such as maps, weather reports, videos or images from other applications to give the user added value.

So for example, rather than investing a lot of time and money creating a street map of where your hotel is, you can simply use existing technology, such as ‘Google Earth’ or ‘Multimap’, directly on your homepage.

Similarly, the Met Office’s site could be used to give a local weather report, while YouTube or an image sharing site like Flickr can be used to document past visitors’ experiences through video or photos.

When all the ‘mashed up’ elements come together like this, the benefits become clear; users benefit from a much-improved service on your website, while the additional applications that you’ve ‘borrowed’ from allow you to punch above your weight, without having to invest a lot of time in building them from scratch. The possibilities are endless, and are extremely exciting.

At a more sophisticated level, some websites sites provide an API (Application Programming Interface) which often allows a much greater integration of content from one site with another, allowing you to ‘borrow’ content seamlessly from one site, and present it, branded as if it’s your own.

Yahoo’s Travel site has adopted the API approach and is a great example of a website opening up its content to allow other websites to display detailed information about trips in this way.

The nature of the travel industry – where customers demand depth of information about their destination, resort or hotel, combined with the high level of innovation in the sector – has really fuelled the growth of this technology, and its potential is huge.

As the web becomes a platform for applications and information, existing as resources displayed in many different places, it is important to recognise that the way we interact with the internet is changing.

Mashups are at the heart of this de-centralised approach to online publishing and we should all be aware that information we publish through one website may end up on lots of other sites.

However, view it as an exciting opportunity – there is a wealth of free resources available that can add real depth and value to your business. It is not a passing trend – get involved before you are left behind.