Don Box weighs in on Google deprecating their SOAP search API and releasing an AJAX one. Choice snippet:
In my mind, this is a significant step backwards.
It's one thing to say move from SOAP to POX or even XML to JSON - the former move trades off extensibility in the spirit of YAGNI, and the latter move trades off SGML synergy for a better impedance match to most people's programming languages.
It's another thing entirely to require someone to use a specific language, runtime, and even local API to get at your service.
No matter how you define "web service," I don't think this newest offering qualifies.
I'm hoping this is just an anomaly and not a trend, lest we all fall back into the world of opaque/closed protocols.
Been there, done that.
Yes, this is Microsoft advocating openness...and Google advocating proprietary-ness. Right on, Microsoft.