GraphQL is becoming a go-to query language for companies to interact with data. Understand what GraphQL does and why it’s so popular.

GraphQL saw explosive growth among JavaScript developers over the past two years, according to data compiled by NPM, which offers tools for managing JavaScript code.

But it's more than just a protocol: The Graph also has an implementation, which is open source and uses GraphQL. GraphQL is a query language for APIs, developed and open sourced by Facebook.

GraphQL, the “little JSON data interface that could,” has now attracted a company to build a data virtualization service around it.