The Client Object Model only works in SharePoint 2010 and does not work for anonymous users. SPServices works the same in both SharePoint 2007 and 2010 and works just fine with anonymous users as long as anonymous users have access to the pages and the scripts. As far as just calling the Web Services directly? Well, that’s basically what SPServices does except it takes care of the heavy lifting for you and wraps the Web Service methods in easy to use functions. So, if you prefer to manually write SOAP envelopes and all that fun stuff, have at it.
