Yes, during the 2000's there was the "mashup" fads. People creating companies around mashing data from one service to another. Like putting Craigslist listings on a Google Map.

And guess what, all those mashup companies didn't last a couple of years. Because they didn't have a direct access to data.

Ideas that didn't scale past a comfortable income for the three people originally involved.

yet sites like, gasbuddy and builtwith.com do seem to have a strong presence and a valuable one.