Mash-up is a term that not only applies to the web, but to many other forms of distributed media such as music or film. Although a Web Mash-Up is more to do with mixing different technologies rather than just different genres of media. The term 'Mash-Up', when applied to the Internet, came from the 'Web 2.0' bag of buzzwords, they are hybrid applications. They take two, or more, existing technologies and create a new service which was not provided by any of the sources. Examples of such hybrid applications are The WorldTimeEngine which allows users to find the exact time in any location on the planet using Google Maps and Star Viewer, a mash-up of Google Sky and YouTube from which you can watch videos showing stars, nebulae, and galaxies at quite high levels of detail.
I think that the use of 'Mash-Ups' is only going to increase, I think of it as being the web equivalent of RAD(Rapid Application Development), very few people do the hard work of creating new technologies and lots of people use them and act like they created the underlying concepts, however my view is quite a pessimistic one as I think that as these 'Mash-Ups' become easier to create then some web developers will become lazy and rely on the rest of the world to innovate , which in turn would bring the furthering of technology to a grinding halt. I think that 'Mash-Ups' will eventually be commandeered by the 'Social-Networking' scene, the mySpaces and Facebooks etc, they will be dumbed down to let anyone with half a brain stem use them, for no real use other than to say "Oh look I posted my Blog from here, It's a mile away from my house" or something to that effect. In conclusion I think that for most applications 'Mash-Ups' can be useful tools, and that they should be used by the people that know what they are doing and can create something that is truly new and innovative that can be used and enjoyed worldwide
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