Since XML contains no formatting instructions, the application would not break the next time the search engines change their layouts. I was originally concerned that SOAP was too simple. Then I started using SOAP and I realized that its major benefit is that it builds on the Web. However, what it lacks in power, SOAP more than compensates for in its simplicity. For example, since SOAP uses HTTP, SOAP servers are Web servers.
Most businesses have significant experience in deploying Web servers or developing Web applications.
With SOAP, they can leverage that experience for object servers. I can think of only two drawbacks to SOAP but, depending on the project, they can be significant. First, SOAP is not an official standard yet. Currently SOAP is ideal for distributed applications that need lightweight remote procedure calls. But it ended up as a SOAP project.