looking for websites that add value to pre-existing datasets
July 3, 2007 5:57 AM Subscribe
Looking for examples of websites that use pre-existing data (vague question I know; more details inside)
I'm spending a lot of time at the moment building a website for a manually curated database, and I've become interested in the idea of a "genre" of websites that are useful because they provide an interface to some large collection of information that would otherwise be unwieldy. For example, there are massive numbers of recipes freely available online, but a site that lets you search by ingredient, etc. makes them much more useful. I guess what I'm talking about are database-driven websites where the content is derived from some pre-existing source rather than added by users (as per digg, flickr, Metafilter et al.) Can anyone give any examples, either of this type of site, or of existing collections of data that might be a good candidate for building a site around if I were to try building one as a project? I appreciate that this isn't a very well defined question (You could claim that google search falls into this category, as its 'content' is generated by indexing pre-existing sites) but I'm hoping that the answers will help me think more clearly about it.
I'm spending a lot of time at the moment building a website for a manually curated database, and I've become interested in the idea of a "genre" of websites that are useful because they provide an interface to some large collection of information that would otherwise be unwieldy. For example, there are massive numbers of recipes freely available online, but a site that lets you search by ingredient, etc. makes them much more useful. I guess what I'm talking about are database-driven websites where the content is derived from some pre-existing source rather than added by users (as per digg, flickr, Metafilter et al.) Can anyone give any examples, either of this type of site, or of existing collections of data that might be a good candidate for building a site around if I were to try building one as a project? I appreciate that this isn't a very well defined question (You could claim that google search falls into this category, as its 'content' is generated by indexing pre-existing sites) but I'm hoping that the answers will help me think more clearly about it.
Best answer: I believe the Gapminder webapps pull from publicly available information. But as to where they directly get the information from and how they stored/accessed it I don't know.
Gapminder Tools
posted by Hates_ at 6:23 AM on July 3, 2007
Gapminder Tools
posted by Hates_ at 6:23 AM on July 3, 2007
Sites that use the eBay and Amazon web services to provide additional functionality. UPC/ISBN databases. Electoral Roll (in the UK). Flickr API. Anything from the US gov (eg the zipcode database).
posted by Leon at 6:46 AM on July 3, 2007
posted by Leon at 6:46 AM on July 3, 2007
artprice.com and similar services log auction data from all over the place so you can, for example, search auctions worldwide for works by picasso.
posted by londongeezer at 8:50 AM on July 3, 2007
posted by londongeezer at 8:50 AM on July 3, 2007
Political data crunchers, such as the campaign money sites or TheyWorkForYou, which is so much better than the official UK Hansard site.
posted by holgate at 10:11 AM on July 3, 2007
posted by holgate at 10:11 AM on July 3, 2007
Best answer: The Google magic word you're looking for would be 'mashup'.
Lots here.
posted by genghis at 3:44 PM on July 3, 2007
Lots here.
posted by genghis at 3:44 PM on July 3, 2007
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 6:12 AM on July 3, 2007