Maps Meet Mashups

摘要

Take Web 2.0, mix liberally with local maps from across the United States or the world, and add information on restaurants, hotels, gas stations, real estate, or dozens of other potential sources. The result is among the hottest and most useful new generation of applications on the Web—the location mashup. More than 35,000 location mashups—ranging from restaurant locators to celebrity trackers—have been created using Google Maps alone. Want to know where Madonna has been hanging out? Go to www.gawker.com/stalker, where you can get daily updates on the whereabouts of celebrities, with exact locations plotted on a map. Like much of Web 2.0, location mashups are the province of creative problem solvers who develop them independently. Some businesses have created their own, but many are a step behind the trend.