Binary XML, or Binary Extensible Markup Language, refers to any specification which defines the compact representation of XML in a binary format. While there are several competing formats, none has been widely adopted by a standards organization or accepted as a de facto standard. Using a binary XML format generally reduces the verbosity of XML documents and cost of parsing , but hinders the use of ordinary text editors to view and edit the document. Other advantages may include enabling random access and indexing of XML documents.