Mashups - part 2

I've had lots of fun creating a map of my recent trip to Egypt and Jordan in GoogleMaps. I've also explored adding photos that I took to the map I created.

Mashups

I've always loved the idea of mashups but have never quite been sure how useful they could be.

I had a look at "Then and Now: Historic New York images from New York Public Library using Flickr and Google Street view" and loved being able to compare what places used to look like as opposed to what they look like now.

I also like "Real Estate - SuburbView". I think its a very handy way for people who are looking for house/apartment to get an idea of what's available in the area they are looking at, and by getting the street view they can get a real-to-life idea.

The only problem I had with the above to sites were that I couldn't view them through Internet Explorer. I had to use Firefox, which isn't available on my computer although I can use it out in the public area. I can see how mashups could be an exciting addition if used right and with the right collection. For example, photos from the John Oxley Library could be used in a very similar way to the "Then and Now" done by New York Public Library.

GoogleDocs

I can see the uses of GoogleDocs in both creating documents, presentations etc and being able to share them without having to close it, so that someone else can access and edit it. The one problem I found was that GoogleDocs, particularly the "Create a document" tends to malfunction. I found it easy to create a presentation but found creating a document or uploading a word document took me several goes over several days to achieve. In a busy work situation this would be unacceptable because you would often have deadlines you would need to meet, which unoperational applications would effect.

L2TD Part B - Online apps & tools

As I worked my way down the page, it was interesting to see just how many different applications that are out there. I hadn't realised just how useful GoogleDocs could be. It reminded me of my study days when you had to do assignments as a group so you had to make time. Something like GoogleDocs would have made that so much easier.


I also like the idea of being able to convert files without having to download the software. Many the time I've wished I had a different version of something only to give up because you had to download something or pay for something to just do one single conversion.