The Browser as a Secure Platform for Loosely Coupled, Private-Data Mashups

A web mashup is a combination of data from disparate web-based sources. Typically, a mashup loads data from pre-determined sources, "Makes sense" of the different datasets in order to relate them, and serves up a useful combination. Because of browser security constraints, these mashups are usually limited to public data sources, e.g. Google Maps, Craigslist or public RSS feeds. The authors suggest that mashups will eventually combine public and multiple private data sources, e.g. Google Maps with a user's calendar, address book, evites, etc. These mashups will execute inside the user's browser, with the mashup code downloading private data using the browser's JavaScript API.