Google Protocol Buffers v3.0.0-alpha-1 發布，新特性包括：
Removal of field presence logic for primitive value fields, removal of required fields, and removal of default values. This makes proto3 significantly easier to implement with open struct representations, as in languages like Android Java, Objective C, or Go.
Removal of unknown fields.
Removal of extensions, which are instead replaced by a new standard type called Any.
Fix semantics for unknown enum values.
Addition of maps.
Addition of a small set of standard types for representation of time, dynamic data, etc.
A well-defined encoding in JSON as an alternative to binary proto encoding.
同時部分 proto3 支持 C++ 和 Java，目前上述的 6 和 7 暫時沒有實現。詳細介紹請看發行說明。
Protocol Buffers (ProtocolBuffer/ protobuf )是Google公司開發的一種數據描述語言，類似於XML能夠將結構化數據序列化，可用於數據存儲、通信協議等方面。現階段支持C++、JAVA、Python等三種程式語言。