Just like Eddie told Frank it's *words AND music* ... for REST, it's *verb AND name*. You could write a doctoral dissertation about it (ha!) but basically REST is all about having the right name (URL) for your resource and then using the right verb (HTTP's PUT, GET, POST, DELETE) to operate on it. Lot's of folks see those verbs and map it to the database world of CRUD (Create, Retrieve, Update, Delete).

So the RESTafarians would note that you overcomplicated your app by placing the verb where just the name should and by overloading GET so that it updates the resource -- GET's should be idempotent - just retrieve the resource as it is - do not modify it.

That all being said, I cannot tell if your method is inferior or not. Did it work? Did it meet the requirements? If so, who's to say your way was inferior. But it sounds like your app was more of a browser-to-server app, when people talk about REST (and/or SOAP), it's rare that they mean browser-to-server interaction but server-to-server interaction.