PHP global or $GLOBALS

Use global at the top of your function. That way, you can easily see what globals are used.

Well, you should only use globals in limited circumstances, but to answer your question:

1. global is potentially marginally faster (it will rarely make a difference).
2. $GLOBALS (not $GLOBAL) is more readable, because every time you see it, you know you are accessing/changing a global variable. This can be crucial in avoiding nasty bugs.
3. Inside the function, if you want to unset a global variable, you must use unset($GLOBALS['varname']), not global $varname; unset($varname);.

As to points 1 and 2, I'll quote Sara Golemon here:

What does that mean for your use of the $GLOBALS array? That's right, the global keyword is technically faster. Now, I want to be really clear about one thing here. The minor speed affordance given by using your globals as localized [compiled variables] needs to be seriously weighed against the maintainability of looking at your code in five years and knowing that $foo came from the global scope. something_using($GLOBALS['foo']); will ALWAYS be clearer to you down the line than global $foo; /* buncha code */ something_using($foo); Don't be penny-wise and pound foolish..

What you should really do is pass the variable to the function instead of using a global at all.

An example how to change a variable outside of the function via passing it as reference parameter:

function myFunc(&$myVar)
{
    $myVar = 10;
}

$foo = 0;
myFunc($foo);
var_dump($foo); // yields 10