A Framework for the Consistent Usage of Tag-Based Mashups

Mashups and social tagging are two of many aspects of recent developments on the Web and both are essential to this work. Mashups are Web applications that integrate data and functions from multiple Web sources. Social tagging is a form of free labeling, which is often used to annotate multimedia content on Web platforms. These two aspects are combined by showing how conventions in the usage of social tagging have created the possibility of controlling mashups with tags. In this work the development of an application for the creation and distribution of tag-based mashups is described. The application hooks into a Web browser and augments the Web surfing process with mashups based on the tags of the page on the fly. It thus adds relevant content to an original Web page. Application scenarios for the prototype are developed and it is examined how the underlying idea can be carried over into other contexts.