Mash Maker is a browser extension that allows you to make the web the way you want it. Do you wish that OpenTable showed restaurants on a map, or Google News allowed one to browse stories by phono, or Expedia showed legroom for all its flights? If you use Mash Maker then you can modify them so that they do.
Mash Maker allows you to enhance the web pages you already use by applying mashups to them that enhance these existing web sites with extra information and visualizations. Each mashup is composed of a number of Widgets -- mini applications that understand the meaning of the page they are on and can enhance it in interesting ways.
Mash Maker is not a "mashup service" or a "tool for creating mashup sites". The mashups created in Mash Maker are not new stand-alone services that users can navigate to, but instead an enhanced version of the existing web, layed on top of the existing network of web sites.
Don't just browse the web. Manipulate it, visualize it, repurpose it, and twist it into a form that gives you the information you want, presented the way you want it.
Mash Maker lets you turn normal pages into mashups by applying Widgets. Widgets are written by third parties using Mash Maker's Open Widget API, and can visualize, transform, and extend the data on the pages that the user browses.
Once a user finds a combination of widgets that work well, they can save it as a new mashup, allowing it to be suggested to other users.
Understand the Web as a Community
To mash the web one must first understand it. Mash Maker uses the power of the community to understand the meaning of pages on the web. Any user can use Mash Maker's built in Extractor Editor to interactively teach Mash Maker how to understand the information found on a particular kind of web page.
Mash Maker uses a wiki-like model in which any user can edit the extractor for any kind of web page, and history and edit tracking are used to deal with vandalism.
Giving the People what they Want
Often the hardest part of creating a mashup is knowing that you want one. Mash Maker learns what you like and suggests mashups that it thinks you will want, based on your past behaviour and the behaviour of others. Mash Maker suggest appropriate mashups on its suggestion toolbar. Clicking on a mashup on the toolbar applies the mashup to the current page.
Mash Maker consists of several layers:
- A collaboratively written database of Extractor Editor allows Mash Maker to understand the meaning of content on the web.
- Users can apply Widgets to pages. These are mini-applications, written to an open Widget API that can visualize, manipulate, and extend the data on the page.
- Multiple widgets can be combined into Mashups which enhance a web site in a way useful to the user. Mashups are stored in a shared database and can be suggested to other users.
Intel® Mash Maker provides the external community the opportunity to try out Mash Maker and give us feedback. Mash Maker contains known bugs and some features may not be fully implemented.
