HTML, XHTML & CSS

Chapter 15: Bring the Best of the Web to Your Web Site
worked together, nor do they share a common musical genre, nor is there
even any historical overlap between the two works. Nevertheless, DJ Danger
Mouse took each of these albums, put them together, and used them to
create something interesting and new.
Returning to the topic for this book — namely, Web development — a
mashup is something like what’s found in the music industry except that
samples and vocals are replaced with data or functionality from two (or
more) external services to create something new and interesting online.
In short, mashups provide a way to combine and extend various individual
Web site services to create new functionality that didn’t exist before. Why
would anybody want to do this? Some might say “Just because you can” or
“Just for the thrill.” Others might enjoy tackling the same kind of challenge on
the Web that DJ Danger Mouse took on in the studio in 2004.
In writing this book, we make the assumption that you’re learning your way
around HTML and CSS. Consequently, we don’t expect you to be able to use
every line of code in every mashup. However, we do think you need to know
that mashups exist, and that they are a popular and growing portion of the
Web. Our goal here is to help you understand what mashups are, and to
expose you to just a little about how mashups work.
As you progress with your coding skills, you can tackle projects like building
your own mashups. The real beauty of mashups stems from the trend that
more and more applications and Web sites keep opening (a least a portion of)
their services through special application programming interfaces (APIs) for
embedding and reuse on other sites. Even better, whole online communities,
tutorials, and documentation explain how to access APIs and the data and
services they deliver from the best of the Web’s providers. (Just remember:
Some services are better than others, and some APIs and tools are easier to
work with than others, too. The best of the best is just that because both the
services and the tools you use to access them are pretty darn good indeed.)
Again, please don’t feel overwhelmed. For the moment, be happy understanding
that mashups exist and are pretty darn cool. To get a better idea why we
think this is worth knowing, check out some of the following examples.
Creating a Yelp/Google Maps mashup
In the earlier section, “Creating a map,” we walk you through building a
Google map for some out-of-town friends attending a party in Austin. If you’ve
never been to Austin, one particular food item worth discussing (at least
briefly) is breakfast tacos. Depending on where you live, you may not have
heard of these delectable treats. For those who don’t know, in its simplest
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