Twitter Data - A simple, open proposal for embedding data in Twitter messages

FAQ > design decisions (3 entries)

Why not extend the hashtag syntax instead of defining a new syntax?

Hashtags are specially indexed by Twitter search and are terminated by any non-alphanumeric character. This limits our ability to define a namespace mechanism in Twitter Data. Furthermore, the use ...
Why not use JSON for tuple values?

We discussed using JSON, but concluded that it is too verbose for general use, especially with a limit of 140 characters. Also, it doesn't work well with our intent to keep ...
Why not use XML for tuple values?

XML is way too verbose to fit into 140 characters for really interesting applications. Furthremore, it's very unfriendly to human readers.