The debate over web services is by no means complete, but there are some elements that stand out.
RESTful web services are a 'family' of web services. Some would call it an architecture.
RESTful web services use the HTTP protocol to perform requests from a web service. They use the HTTP verbs: GET, POST, PUT and DELETE (and others, sometimes). The requests themselves are to URLs which represent resources... sometimes the requests will contain data in the body that could by HTML, JSON, binary data or other.
A purely RESTful web service only requires the URL and the HTTP verb to describe the requested action... the body data is usually a payload to be involved in the requested action... it should not dictate the requested action
SOAP, on the other hand, is actually a protocol. It is usually transported over HTTP, but the HTTP request is just a method to get the SOAP packet to the necessary handler. The contents of the SOAP request describes what the client wants performed. It contains all the necessary information.
They are two very different ways of implementing Web Services. If you ask the question "Which is better" you'll probably get strong opinions from both sides. I suggest you investigate further and make up your own mind.
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