m i k e b r e v o o r t

Today was the first chance I had to check out Google Mashup Editor since it was released into beta two and a half months ago. I was disappointed to find that Google limited the number beta testers and has declared the Beta group “full” so I signed up to be notified when “spots are available.”

Most of the Google Mashup examples I’ve seen include Google Maps and aggregated RSS feeds, nothing too outrageous yet, but slick with minimal development. For example here’s a mashup application that geo-locates the site of earthquakes measured by the Australian geosciences authority as well as mapping out the ‘damage’ and ‘felt’ zones for each quake. Here’s the code behind it. I like Google’s approach here in that they’re not attempting to create a turn key platform for the average non-developer to build mashups. Instead, they created a platform for developers using familiar technologies to quickly and easily create simple web applications and mashups using Google services like Maps and Base. Here’s a pretty good walk through of how it works.

I’m curious to see where services like this go. On one hand it’s a free and hosted service; on the other, if the data or services you want to expose are not publicly available (i.e. behind your corporate firewall or secured) this if of little use to you. But I’m sure if the beta goes well, Google will leverage this in it’s Google Apps (Gmail, Calendar, Docs & Spreadsheets, Gtalk, etc.) enterprise offering with expanded APIs to integrate with existing corporate infrastructures like what they offer for SSO and user provisioning.

For more info check out the Google Mashups Blog.