Paul Prescod:

"[A] Google API based on XML, HTTP and URIs can be simpler to use, more efficient, and more powerful. [...] When Google exposes its service through SOAP, it is behind the Web because the object with the web URI is the SOAP component ("endpoint"), not the actual query results. I need to go through the component to get to the data, like making a phone call through an operator instead of dialing direct. But in the XML/HTTP/URI way of thinking, every possible query result has its own URI and thus is a first-class web data object."