ReadWriteWeb

Mashup management service Mashery launched a new API for WhitePages.com today, allowing developers to fold extensive "people search" into almost any other application. Sample applications included in the release include tools to integrate WhitePages.com lookup into OutLook as a toolbar, a Javascript/Ruby on Rails reverse phone number lookup widget and an integration of location lookup and the Google Maps API.

Nonprofit tech assistance project NetSquared has opened the voting for their Mashup Challenge this week and it's a great place to discover a long list of interesting mashups being built to make the world a better place.

We've written about one participant here before, MoveSmart, and another really good one (SocialActions) reached out to us this week with a handy Sproutbuilder widget embedded below.

Twitter was originally designed as an app that would allow people to share information about what they were doing within a distributed group setting. It's something akin to a collection of automatically forming email discussion lists (except not via email). The benefit of this is that people can receive and send information within a group very quickly. That's why Twitter has become such an important source of breaking news, and it's also why helpful consumer information apps like Commuter Feed are possible.

Today is so-called "Super Tuesday" in the US. Voters in 24 states are heading to the polls -- including in large population states like New York, California, and Illinois -- to decide who get to face off for the job of US president as the nominees of the Republican and Democratic parties. After the votes have been counted tonight, 52% of the Democratic and 41% of the Republican delegates will have been awarded, and it may be that we have a clearer picture of who those nominees are.

Idiomag is a fascinating project that combines syndicated media content, user feedback, recommendation technology and now Attention Data to produce a very attractive personalized "web magazine" about music.

It's applications like this that make me love my job reviewing what's new on the web.

Like it or not, there's a whole lot of conversation going on via microblogging service Twitter these days and it cannot be ignored.

Let's say you've subscribed to a search feed for your company's name (via Terraminds) and you've found someone talking smack about your employer, Perfect Angel Inc. What do you do? Well, one thing you might find useful is the new service Tweeterboard.

The MP3 blog aggregator HypeMachine is set to relaunch with a whole new website once 10,000 people have the site's splash page open simultaneously. When they reach that number, I expect the relaunch to be very well received. At "press/blog time" there are just over 3,000 people waiting, but major music sites will likely cover it soon and put that number over the edge. (Update: It appears the new site has launched.)

A new design, lots of smart social networking features and a DRM-free emphasis are the key points of the relaunch. Details and screen shots below.

The distributed group of developers working on the Open Authentication spec OAuth have released what they hope will be the final draft of their 1.0 version. The OAuth spec will create a standardized way for applications to request permission for access to user info from other applications and for info-holding services to communicate clear rules and options for accessing parts of the data they hold.

The spec got a burst of publicity earlier this week when the widely used feed reader Bloglines announced that they intend to support it in addition to OpenID and the Attention Data standard APML.

In this post I offer a high-level overview of what OAuth does, in as much as I understand it, followed by some thoughts on the concepts from some helpful industry experts.

Developing a mashup can be a lot of fun and it's usually low cost, because you're using (semi) open tools and data. Forget fun though for a minute - is there a business in mashups? There are obvious benefits for the data providers, for example both Google and craigslist benefit from increased traffic to their sites. In most cases that leads to increased revenue as well. But what's in it for the mashup developer, apart from publicity and prestige?

Findory developer Greg Linden listed some problems with mashups as a business on his blog near the end of 2005. He noted that mashups have no service guarantees, there are usually limits on the queries of APIs and limits on commercial use of the APIs, mashups can be numbingly slow, and there are no barriers to entry.

Although Greg concluded that "there is no business model for mashups", in fact there are a number of ways in which mashup developers can monetize their products. The most obvious is advertising.

Advertising

Simplyhired.com is a 'vertical search for jobs' mashup, getting data from job boards, company pages, online classifieds, and other data sources. It also mashes in Google Maps, LinkedIn and PayScale.com. When a user searches for a job - say, a chef position in Seattle - they not only get a list of available chef jobs in Seattle, but on the right of the results are "sponsored listings"

I assume SimplyHired has agreements with the data owners, in which they licence access to the data for commercial means (if anyone can confirm that, please do in the comments). In any case I expect SimplyHired is earning a tidy sum with onsite advertising, because the results are highly contextual and job-seekers would probably be tempted by "send your resume now" ads.

Lead generation and affiliate programs

Another potential business model for mashups is lead generation and/or affiliate programs. Adam Trachtenberg, a developer from eBay, developed a mashup called Dude, Where's My Used Car? (previously known as 'eBay Motors & Google Maps'). It is a mashup of data from eBay Motors listings and - you guessed it - Google Maps, using the APIs of those two companies. What it does is enable users to find vehicles for sale in a location near them. The data in this mash-up is not stored on the host's server, unlike with Housing Maps for example, but is served up in real time.

Explaining his mashup at the 2005 Web 2.0 Conference, Adam said it gave the user experiences they wouldn't normally get on eBay - primarily the visual mapping experience. But crucially the mashup still does a lot of things users can do on the eBay website, for example adding a watchlist onto their eBay profile.

There is also an eBay affiliate program, which is a possible source of revenue for Adam in the future. As of writing, he hasn't implemented the affiliate feature - noting in his To Do list that he needs to add Affiliate link tracking and more information on eBay Developers and Affiliate Programs.

How would the affiliate program work? Well this mashup essentially creates lead generations for eBay, because all results are directed to the eBay Motors website for details on purchasing the vehicle. It's similar to how HousingMaps directs users to craigslist to complete their transaction. Except that eBay actually has an affiliate program, which would allow Adam to earn a kind of 'lead generation' fee each time a user clicks through to eBay Motors and completes a transaction.

Transactional mashups

As mashups mature, we will probably see more examples of 'transactional' mashups - i.e. full-fledged web applications in which users can not only view (read) mashed up data, but do transactions with that data within the mashup.

Taking the eBay Motors example above, what if users could actually complete the purchase of a car from within the mashup itself - instead of being directed to the eBay website. The value would remain the same for eBay, who get the same cut of the action. Indeed they may find purchases increase, because the user can do everything from the one place (the mashup site). It would almost certainly mean more value for the mashup, because users would be able to do more things on the mashup site - which gives more monetization opportunities (e.g. advertising).

In an August 2005 blog post Technology VC Peter Rip speculated that advertising networks such as Google and Yahoo/Overture will eventually create "settlement network models" to enable transactional mashups. While he was talking specifically about advertising networks, there is no reason why this model can't be extended to web applications such as eBay Motors. The elements of a settlement network model would initially be:

"…bundling (1) contracts to police gaming and (2) payment settlement systems to enable the shared value model…"

Enabling transactions in mashups extends to enterprise applications too. In January 2006 Phil Wainewright wrote about a company called NetSuite, a provider of CRM software. NetSuite stores transactional data, such as orders and stock levels, which according to CEO Zach Nelson "makes it a natural choice for creating composite applications - or mashups, as the Web x.0 generation has it - with other services."

Other business models

Other possible business models for mashups include:

• subscriptions
• pay-per-transaction
• premium services
• charging businesses but not individuals
• etc. 

None of these business models I've outlined here has yet been fully proven. But then it can fairly be said that business models for mashups in general are still being explored and there are no easy monetization answers yet.

Flickr pics: The first one is by ancawonka, from the Yahoo! party at eTech 06. The second Flickr pic is by Dave McClure, from the 2005 Web 2.0 Conference session on mashups (which I attended). Pictured are eBay's Adam Trachtenberg, Yahoo's Jeffrey McManus and Google/HousingMap's Paul Rademacher.

The BBC has launched a new beta site called BBC Backstage, which is their new developer network. They've put the call out for people to remix their content, using their APIs and content RSS feeds. Although over the years the BBC has been understandably "cautious" about "letting go of control of so much of our content", it's a good sign they've started the unshackling process now.

I took a look at the Prototype section of the site and was impressed by the projects already published: a BBC News/Wikipedia mash-up, some del.icio.us experimentation and a search of the BBC's Today program. 

In the BBC/Wikipedia and BBC/del.icio.us prototype apps, the additonal information and links are integrated very tightly using the existing BBC News design. In fact it took my eyes a while to pick up the changes! While using the same design may be the point, personally I'd prefer a little more differentiation - if only so the Wikipedia and del.icio.us services have their fair share of branding on those pages.

Other highlights for me in the Prototype section were an RSS feed of BBC complaints and Mint, "a video bloggers friend". I can't wait to see what else pops up! You don't necessarily need to develop the apps yourself either, you can simply note down an idea and who knows who'll pick it up and run with it. For example, Rael Dornfest has put in a request for "an app that'll find, bundle, and download all parts of a four part radio play".

So whether you're a developer or a normal user with a request, the BBC Backstage has something for you. Congrats to the BBC for fully embracing the Remix Culture!