Utilizing new web-based tools and popular web services, a new form of online companies called mashups has become increasingly popular. Mash-ups are companies that use online services and tools to combine data from several sources to create a new business.  
         
Housingmaps.com, for example, combines data from online classifieds on Craigslist with Google Maps to create a new consumer application. Many mash-ups are started and operated by a single person or small group.

A recent report from Forrester Research predicts that mashups will be a $700 million market by 2013. “As a result,” writes Forrester, “we expect traditional collaboration and productivity vendors like IBM and Microsoft to ultimately come to dominate the mashup platform market, rolling mashup platforms into major products like SharePoint and the Lotus application suite.”

Quick, it’s time to launch your monster mashup idea before someone else does… Get your mash on, people!