Mashup Madness

I've been playing with mashups. No, I haven't gone mad with the potoato masher - a mashup is a web application that uses content (think images, video, music, etc) from more than one source to create a more interesting display/ outcome.

I've been tinkering with Google maps. I must admit that this took me a while to feel comfortable with, but when I finally got the hang of it I had a lot of fun playing around with it. The instructional video made it look very easy and gave me lots of hope that I would be able to create my own map, which I did and I'm quite happy with it.

The mashup concept is something I was familar with from watching The Gruen Transfer on TV. The show ran a competition where viewers could go to the website and use the tools provided to create their own ad. The results were always interesting and very entertaining and
no.2 mupp-ette and I were very keen to create our own ad, but we just didn't get around to it. So this little exercise might just be the impetus I need to play with more mashups applications.

Hopefully in my next posting I will include my map mashup because at the moment I can't for the life of me remember how to do this. BRAIN FADE or as my sister used to say "LOST IN SPACE". How rude! Anyway, the image I've chosen to include with this posting was taken earlier this year at Burleigh Heads, Queensland. I took the photo while the mupp-ettes very grudgingly accompanied me on a walk around the Burleigh Heads National Park (which incidentally is the map I've been working on).

Google Mania!!

I've been exploring the wonderful world of Google. It is so much more than just a search engine, which is what I've been primarily using it as. First I started by looking at the Google Translate feature. I can now say (not with the correct inflection or accent) "I'm thirsty" in different languages. This could come in very handy some day. The translator did have a problem with translating "Gidday mate" but all things considered that's not a major problem. I could even translate whole webpages into different languages. I'm just so impressed with this technology. I can see this feature being invaluable in libraries which has a diverse client base of many different backgrounds.

Next I went looking at Google books. I was able to search for a couple of books that I've been looking for at different book shops. I know that one is out of print and I didn't have any luck in locating it, but I found the other one and could even go off and try to purchase it if I wanted. Maybe after Christmas...

i-Google looks absolutely amazing. It allows you to personalise your Google home page. I'm going to add different gadgets to show me the time, film news, local weather maybe even horoscopes and crosswords. The mupp-ettes will never get me off the computer now! Won't that make them happy? I can't wait to have proper play with this feature.

I watched a video showing me how to create my own personalised Google map. The video made it look easy, so I definitely want to do this. It showed me how to add markers, draw in a route and add pictures and videos. I'm just trying to work out a interesting map I could work on. If I'm successful I would like to add it to my blog, just to show that I did it.

With all these little adventures to get started on, the mupp-ettes better watch out, they may rarely get a turn at playing on the computer!