If a webservice is developed to use datasets will that restrict the audience of sites that use it to .net apps only?

I think Flash Remoting can consume DataSets.

But IMO, datasets are lame.  I doubt it'll restrict it to .NET apps only, but you may have to jump through the hoops of deserializing it on whichever language you use.

found this blog,

http://blogs.msdn.com/interoperability/archive/2009/08/21/a-new-bridge-for-php-developers-to-net-through-rest-php-toolkit-for-ado-net-data-services.aspx

I dont use php, but it looks promising.

yum bots