Why is it not a good idea to use SOAP for communicating with the front end (ie web browser)?

Question

Why is it not a good idea to use SOAP for communicating with the front end? For example, a web browser using JavaScript.

Answer 1

Because SOAP reinvents a lot of the HTTP wheel in its quest for protocol-independence. What's the point if you know you're going to serve the response over HTTP anyway (since your client is a web browser)?

UPDATE: I second gizmo's (implied) suggestion of JSON.