RESTful web services have been talked about ad-nauseum for a decade. In fact, REST felt like such a hipster's architecture that I pawned it off as a fad and waited this long to only begin to understand it. Prior to understanding a technology, I have to ask myself, "What motivates people to use this technology over others?". I think I may have figured it out.
The key to benefit of REST is the fact that it lives within the confines of HTTP/1.1. Within this world a RESTful web service benefits from all the solutions already solved by the HTTP/1.1 spec. A brief