Wide Area Information Server

Wide Area Information Server

Wide Area Information Servers or WAIS is a client–server text searching system that uses the ANSI Standard Z39.50 Information Retrieval Service Definition and Protocol Specifications for Library Applications" (Z39.50:1988) to search index databases on remote computers. It was developed in the late 1980s as a project of Thinking Machines, Apple Computer, Dow Jones, and KPMG Peat Marwick.

WAIS did not adhere to either the standard or its OSI framework (adopting instead TCP/IP) but created a unique protocol inspired by Z39.50:1988.

Read more about Wide Area Information Server:  History, Directory of Servers, People, WAIS and Gopher

Famous quotes containing the words wide, area and/or information:

    “How wide is all this long pretense!
    There is in love a sweetness ready penned,
    Copy out only that, and save expense.”
    George Herbert (1593–1633)

    The area [of toilet training] is one where a child really does possess the power to defy. Strong pressure leads to a powerful struggle. The issue then is not toilet training but who holds the reins—mother or child? And the child has most of the ammunition!
    Dorothy Corkville Briggs (20th century)

    On the breasts of a barmaid in Sale
    Were tattooed the prices of ale;
    And on her behind
    For the sake of the blind
    Was the same information in Braille.
    Anonymous.