Google Protocol Buffers: An Alternative to XML

Google created its own open source format for exchanging data between servers, giving it the name Protocol Buffers.

Protocol Buffers is a compact way to encode data in binary format, which allows you to define a simple data structure, and then compile them and assign classes to represent these structures in the desired language (Java, Python or C ++).

XML has long been criticized for slowing down performance, but given that huge investments have already been made in it, it is unlikely for Protocol Buffers to push it out or replace it completely.
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Most likely, it will be used by Google and other monsters, who have a large number of different types of servers, as well as experimenters to create web applications that require an effective way of representing requests and responses between the client and the server.

via The SocialTrend