On the php|architect site today there's a new article from Luke Stokes asking a question about the future of the web (and web serivces) - is the future in REST or SOAP?

I was recently asked why we chose REST over SOAP for our re-write of the FoxyCart.com API, and the short answer that immediately came to mind was, "Because I don't hate myself". To expand on that answer, let me give you a little bit of the back story.

He talks about their goals for the product and its API, how they wanted to create something useful, built by developers for developers. They leaned towards REST mostly because of the problems and overhead introduced with SOAP (and the complex nature of its requests). He also gives a few reasons why he's "excited about REST": working with known data types, standard interface methods and the fact that it's still such a hot topic of discussion.

These questions [about HATEOS, hypermedia, vendor-specific content types] might seem overwhelming, but for us they are exciting! We believe the future of consistent, powerful API development is being defined right now, and we get to be a part of it.