Google released Protocol Buffers as an open source project today. It used to be an internal tool used by Google for passing serialized objects between applications. But frankly, reading through the introduction I don’t see what problem it tries to tackle that JSON can’t. I seriously doubt if PB is faster than JSON. Also, JSON is more generic and flexible than PB. Easier too. Perhaps PB as a project predates JSON. I see several having the same reactions as mine.

I am going to dig into documentations and discussions to make sense of the pros and cons of PB viz-a-viz JSON.

Tags: ProtocolBuffers, JSON, PB, Google