Web applications no longer need be powered by any one individual's data, and they don't need to be confined to the desktop.

Developers can draw on a wealth of publicly available content, from providers such as Flickr, Amazon, Google, Twitter, and Last.fm, and combine it for use in their own applications. Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR) makes it simple to bring previously web-only applications to the desktop, allowing them to run alongside traditional applications on an end user's computer

In this book, you'll learn how to create mashup applications from the vast array of web services, feeds, and APIs using Adobe Flash and Flex together with HTML and javascript (Ajax). You'll be introduced to the various sources of information and the tools necessary to gather and reuse that information, and then you'll learn how to combine that content in a variety of ways.