Wide Area Information Servers (WAIS)

• Collaboration: Apple, Thinking Machines, Dow Jones, KPMG Peat Marwick
• Multimedia capabilities (but generally used for text)
• Uses port #210 by default
• Index of full text
• Two step process:
  • Search "Directory of Servers," select server(s)
  • Perform topic search (using natural language)
• Hundreds of publicly registered databases: Source Description Structures
• Single query can search multiple databases
• Can save search results and queries (Personalized newspaper application)
• Public domain (CNIDR freeWAIS) and commercial (WAIS, Inc.) servers and clients
• Original public domain client clumsy
• Uses "stateful" Z39.50 database protocol
• Handles various text and image formats
• Supports relevance feedback (full Booleans being added)
• Keyword weighting, document ranking
• Missing in early versions: proximity, keywords, boolean