Yahoo! Launches REST-based Web Services

Yahoo! launched a Web Services interface today. I’m gushing with joy over their decision to follow proven web architecture and select a simple REST model over a more complex WS-* model. Let’s take a look at an item pulled from their FAQ:

Q: Does Yahoo! plan to support SOAP?

Not at this time. We may provide SOAP interfaces in the future, if there is significant demand. We believe REST has a lower barrier to entry, is easier to use than SOAP, and is entirely sufficient for these services.

Get used to that answer. You won’t ever hear it from the evil tool vendors but you can be damn sure you’ll be hearing it from the smart service providers that really are looking to court developers.

Also, it was extremely cool to serendipitously stumble across mine own How I explained REST to my wife article after passing from Yahoo!’s Constructing REST Requests page to Wikipedia’s REST page.