Comments on: Mashups for fun--and profit?

Many are combining online maps and data. But can anyone make money off these things?

[ahickey]

Concern about revenue

If the backbone of your service is provided by somebody else then you are at risk.
Google, Microsoft, AOL have all said they may place ads through their mapping services.

This means mash-up sites will just end up being another adSense website. (I know adSense is Google?s brand and the other call it something else)
For sites hoping to get their own advertising in place they will have to compete with the likes of Google.
With Googles history and focus on advertising for revenue this isn?t a fight I?d like to take on and I expect most start-ups will also find it difficult.

The only hope I see if for Mash-Ups to become mature enough to afford the licence fees for a non-ad placed version of the mapping service before they run out of funds and the excitement of mash-ups is reduced.

[webwala]

Print Mode

When we print CNET articles, could you add all the relevant web links at the bottom of the page.

[pencoyd]

Useful idea... will be considered

The idea of taking the in-line links out and putting them at the bottom of the printer-friendly version has some merit. I wonder how many people will want to type out the full URLs, rather than simply go to the live version of the story (which URL is on the printer-friendly page) and click away from there.

Not promising, but considering.

Thanks for reading and participating.

John Roberts
CNET News.com product development

[VirtualWorld]

Platform with great possibilities

I see alot of potential in the mashup space. In my opionion Microsfot, Google and others are just providing a platform that all sorts of applications can be built on top of. With the right creativity, there are endless possibilities. Zillow is a great example of a site that could revolutionize the real estate industry just like Travelocity and Expedia revolutionized the travel industry.

One thing this article didn't mention is that Microsoft already allows commercial use of their Virtual Earth API provided that limited ads are allowed on the map (triggered by a search bar above the map). I'm using this on my site - www.VirtualWorldRealEstate.com. I won't mind when they officially role out their advertising plan especially since it will provide revenue sharing.

[ntis]

Its easy to monetize these

You just have to know about the google curves.
http://blog.tallsails.com/2006/04/10/the-google-curves.aspx

[robinlast]

popurls

http://popurls.com/ is the best mashup web 2.0 has seen so far

[sdornan]

not just about maps

this headline caught my attention and interest, but as i was reading this article it became clear to me that this author does not really get it...and has painted a picture that myopically associates "mashing" with online mapping applications. it is not just about using Google and Yahoo to create nifty mapping tools.

[Mashup]

Mashup Directory

Found a directory for mashups here:

http://www.webmashup.com

[pintofmilk]

http://www.programmableweb.com is the main mashup site these days.

In response to ahickey on April 19th - I too was concerned that eventually Google would place ads all over their maps product but 3 years on and this still has not happened. Good news and I hope it stays this way as we have developed several mashups based on Google maps and advertising would be a royal pain! Here are some of our mashups:
http://www.sletoh.com - compare hotels in Europe
http://www.tubehotels.com - compare London hotels