Wide area information server

The search service Wide Area Information Servers, WAIS abbreviated, was developed under the direction of Brewster Kahle. WAIS stands since 1991 publicly on the internet.

Within the WAIS database system files are listed that are accessible on the Internet. WAIS now allows for full text search within the dataset. To use WAIS, it requires a special WAIS client that is able to communicate with the WAIS servers.

All WAIS servers run separately growing data sets, that is, the records are not centralized in a database, or the server exchange data with each other.

Each WAIS server contains one or more databases that contain a specific range of information, such as archeology, biology, poems, or weather reports. To get an overview of the WAIS server, there was the directory -of -servers, a directory of WAIS servers in the quake.think.com. For each database there is a source Description, which provides information about the contents of a database, and the corresponding WAIS server.

About WAIS first time it was possible to completely different databases via a uniform user interface, the WAIS client to browse. The search mechanism of WAIS was the basis for further development with GOPHER and VERONICA.