# Text formats are everywhere. Why?

DevFeed: [Text formats are everywhere. Why?](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/text-formats-are-everywhere-why-29394.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://lemire.me/blog/2026/03/05/text-formats-are-everywhere-why/>)

Author: Daniel Lemire

Published: 2026-03-05T14:40:58Z

Content type: opinion

Language: en

Sources: [Daniel Lemire](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/daniel-lemire.md>)

Topics: [Internet](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/internet.md>), [data](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/data.md>), [Web](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/web.md>), [JSON](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/json.md>), [HTML](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/html.md>), [JavaScript](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/javascript.md>), [Code](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/code.md>), [GeoJSON](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/geojson.md>), [SVG](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/svg.md>), [Assembly](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/assembly.md>)

Tags: [assembly](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/assembly.md>), [code](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/code.md>), [data](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/data.md>), [html](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/html.md>), [internet](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/internet.md>), [javascript](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/javascript.md>), [json](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/json.md>), [maps](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/maps.md>), [parsing](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/parsing.md>), [web](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/web.md>), [xml](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/xml.md>)

## AI overview

This commentary explains why text formats remain dominant across Internet technologies and data exchange. It argues that text is often efficient in practice, easier to transform, search, quote, version, and inspect, while noting that binary formats can be preferable in some performance-sensitive cases. It also emphasizes parsing and validating data received from remote sources.

## Source excerpt

The Internet relies on text formats. Thus, we spend a lot of time producing and consuming data encoded in text. Your web pages are HTML. The code running in them is JavaScript, sent as text (JavaScript source), not as already-parsed code. Your emails, including their attachments, are sent as text (your binary files are sent ... Continue reading Text formats are everywhere. Why?