Etymology
Anne Thomas Manes: Notice that the URL contains a method name (getInfo) and query string containing the method parameters. This is NOT REST!
I take it that Google Search doesn’t meet the Burton group’s (re-)definition of the term REST. Nor would most things that uses an HTML form comply, as this results in either a query string or a POST.
It is statements like the one I quoted above that tempers my enthusiasm when I hear that Burton sees the future of SOA and it is REST. Until we can agree on what the term REST means, we’re just replacing one meaningless buzzword with another.
My take: if an operation is read-only (as in no state transfers), then that operation is RESTful, no matter whether or not there is a ? in the URI or if the request uses POST. Avoiding ?’s in URIs and POST for read-only operations are certainly best practices, and furthermore putting method names in URIs is often an indicator of RPC-think, but none of the above are absolute disqualifiers.
Meanwhile, InfoQ has posted Leonard and my first interview on our (virtual) book tour where we presciently talk about “becoming quite fashionable to layer a thin veneer of REST-like interfaces over top of an already many layered framework” and “cargo cult REST”.