JSON, which stands for "JavaScript object notation", is a lightweight data interchange format. JSON has the advantage, over XML, as a data interchange format in that it can be trivially parsed, by JavaScript, with JavaScript's built in eval() procedure. (This is important because of JavaScript's ubiquitousness amoung web browsers.) JSON is JavaScript's object literal format.
Using JSON
JSON is useful as a data-interchange format because it can be trivially parsed, by JavaScript built in eval() procedure. For example:
eval("the_object = " + json_data + ";");
JSON Pronunciation
JSON is pronounced like the name "Jason".