Flickr is the central example in this chapter, one that I analyze extensively. I follow with
Google Maps as an important complementary example. Flickr and Google Maps are among
the most mashed up APIs on the Web. I also discuss del.icio.us, a pioneering social bookmarking
site, and Amazon, which is an example of an e-commerce platform. In this chapter, I have
selected highly remixable applications??”as opposed to web sites that are difficult to recombine??”
as a way to ease into your study of creating mashups.
In this book, I focus mostly on how to use public APIs but briefly mention screen-scraping.
APIs often don??™t do everything you might want from them. Although you can do a lot with
public APIs, screen-scraping provides an important alternative or complementary approach.
Nonetheless, you should use the API as the first resort. You can screen-scrape if you need to,
but always use a web site??™s computational and network resources respectfully, being mindful
of the legal ramifications of what you are doing.
21
C H A P T E R 2
?– ?– ?–
What Makes Web Sites and Applications Mashable
I??™ll now cover the aspects of web sites and web applications that make them amenable to
mashups. Some features are useful regardless of whether you are using the API or whether you
are using informal mechanisms for integration. In either case, you are looking for ways to hook
into an application.
Pages:
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90