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WAIS stands for Wide Area Information Server, an early Internet system for searching and retrieving information from indexed databases using a client-server model. Users could make natural language queries to a client, which would then search across multiple remote servers and return relevant documents based on relevance. It was a precursor to modern search engines, using specialized databases and a protocol based on ANSI's Z39.50 standard for searching.

How it worked

Client-server model: A WAIS client program connected to one or more WAIS servers, each hosting an indexed database.

Indexed databases: Servers would index the contents of documents (text, images, etc.) to allow for full-text searching, not just keyword matching.

Natural language queries: Users could type search queries in plain language, and the client would search across all the specified databases.

Relevance scoring: The system returned documents that matched the query, often scoring them based on how relevant they were to the search terms.

Protocol: It used the Z39.50 protocol to ensure communication and interoperability between different clients and servers, regardless of their underlying hardware or software.