DataMashups.com is the latest Ajax-based web app
development service to be released. It’s a hosted service for developers and offers
an integrated development environment “to rapidly create mashups and web applications
with limited or no need for server side code”. The service is based on the open source
AppliBuilder – a AJAX builder tool. The product blog explains
more and notes that they took their cue from Ning, Zoho Creator and others.
When I first heard about DataMashups.com, I immediately wondered if they are targeting
non-technical users as well as developers – given that Ning has had problems gaining
traction amongst non-developers (who Ning targeted). Tony Thomas from DataMashups.com explained:
“We’re clearly targeting the developer market. We’re relatively recent to the online
development idea, having been quietly working on distributed data and data integration.
But once we got into the model of doing the development online, we see a lot of potential
for this technology in the enterprise. Having such tools setup in the enterprise could
open the door to interesting new applications with enterprise data, since enterprise
developers can try out new applications with no setup required, and small investments of
their time.”
So the enterprise is a key market for DataMashups.com. Is there a consumer
market aspect to their plans too? Tony said:
“We’re not as sure about the online service, and whether there is a viable business
there. It should serve as an easy way for new prospects to try the product, and expose us
to new ideas and requirements. But we do not expect it to be a significant revenue
opportunity for us. Would be great to be surprised on the upside there, but we’re not
expecting that.”
Check out DataMashups.com and let me know how it compares to Ning, Zoho
Creator and the recently launchedDabble DB
(my write-up of that is on
ZDNet).
