REST looks me so simple that I got a question what is REST. It looks like just any GET URLs I use.
How do I recognize that I am using REST?
What is the difference between simple URL like: “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Representational_State_Transfer”
and another REST service URL. Is it that the URL (hhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Representational_State_Transfer) if return JSON/XML then it is REST, otherwise it is a webpage!
In other words:
Given a URL, how do I recognize that I am accessing REST service url or just a webpage. Is it just the return type that is different. If return type is XML/JSON then REST otherwise simple webpage!
There is no way to tell from the URL that you are accessing a REST service vs. anything else.
Given that REST is an architectural style, instead of a specific technology, there is no specific bit-pattern or given marker that you should look for.
From your example, you cannot even tell if it returns JSON vs. HTML or some such, as in that case it is very likely that the server is responding to your Accept: string instead of randomly picking one or the other based on the URL (although given that any specific server can respond to any specific URL how it likes, there are probably servers that do determine it in that way).