Mashups, yes, please!

Tuesday's class session was an adventure in Mashups starting with Google Maps and adding more of our choosing! The first part of the session where we used Google Maps to give directions from a point of our choosing to the Herman B Wells Library went well. Once the place was selected, for me it was the Monroe County Public Library, it was easy to follow the prompts to add pictures, a description, and a path. I learned the difference between plain and rich text settings.

The second part of the session, where we created an HTML web page that contained our Mashup, was more complicated. Because I am a bit rusty with the HTML coding I was apprehensive about the process. After finding the codes to copy and paste into the text editor, it became more manageable. While in class I was able to create a link from the html page to my blog, RSS feed, Meebo chat widget, and a Shelfari widget. Later, I added a Twitter and Poetry 180 widget to the page. So far it seems like the more widgets are available for embedding, like from the website Patrick suggested, http://www.widgetbox.com/search?q=library, with cut & paste ready codes, the more people will utilize the option. In a library setting, I can see this being a useful tool in layering information onto a webpage.