What are Web mashups and what technology makes them possible?

What are Web mashups and what technology makes them possible?

A web mashup is a Web page or application that uses and combines data, presentation or functionality from two or more sources to create new services. The term implies easy, fast integration, frequently using open APIs and data sources to produce enriched results that were not necessarily the original reason for producing the raw source data.
Mashups composition tools are usually simple enough to be used by end-users. They generally do not require programming skills, they rather support visual wiring of GUI widgets, services and components together. Therefore, these tools contribute to a new vision of the Web, where users are able to contribute.
Web mashups combine the capabilities of two or more online applications to create a hybrid that provides more customer value than the original sources alone.
With Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), programmers are able to get the tools needed to pull data from different websites and combine it with other information to make an entirely new Web service. As a result, the web is becoming a collection of capabilities instead of being collection of pages. It is allows programmers to create new services quickly and inexpensively

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