More Things- Nbr 40 Mashup the Web

Not sure what to do in this Thing that hasn't been done in other Things.

I recognize mashups when I see them on TV, having become familiar with the concept through More Things.

Executive Editor ZDNET on YouTube - excellent! That should be on a public or academic library list as an electronic classroom resource.

I used Google search as a starting point for Lunchbox, Wheel of Lunch, and Walkable. Find the street address for a place you know, copy and paste into the search window for the mashup application.

Tried PandoraFM more than a month ago, and again today it stalled while trying to add a few stations based on Artist. Splice wouldn't come up. I like BlipFM. Also got a solicitation to Hearts of Space, with a free-on-Sunday come-on, and more expensive subscriptions. Of course, all of these comments fit Thing 42 as well.

What's mashup about Lunchbox? A Google map application. It was too specific on some categories and very broad scope on others. I zeroed in on Woodbury, MN, east of St. Paul, because I'm familiar with most restaurants there. "Steak" got results Twin Cities wide. "Barbeque" pinpointed the Famous Dave's I expected. My old home Zip Code 55106 on the East Side found Yarusso's Italian restaurant on Payne Avenue without me specifying any category. Nearby Serlin's Cafe was not on the map, and not found via the breakfast category. An opportunity to add your favorites and review them would be useful.

I suppose the colorful spinning wheel is the mashup for Wheel of Lunch. The "Seafood" search for 55802 Duluth gave me a full wheel including Culver's, Coca-Cola Bottling Company, plus the restaurants you would expect. One search is all you get. You have to close the Wheel of Lunch tab and start over to do another search.

Walkable gave Downtown St. Paul a score of 86 of 100 when I entered the address for the Science Museum of Minnesota. Main Street in Downtown Stillwater is "Walker's Paradise". Good Google maps application.

Interestingness was interesting only because it reminds me of Cool Iris, which I prefer and have been using for a long time. Cool Iris qualifies as a great photo mashup, with all kinds of features. It works with your own photos, every imaginable commercial photo source (like Interestingness does), with thumbnails, blowups, and slide shows. Visual Headlines was not interesting. I've praised Picasa's virtues over Flickr elsewhere.

Here's a Warholizer from Big Huge Labs. Thumbnail size is what I get.



Table of sunrise sunset times for any location in the world was an interesting Big Huge Labs/ Google Maps application. I got it right the first time, pretty close to Little Marais. The scale of the map was too gross.