Information retrieval Telnet is a service for the interactive use of other computers or databases. These remote logins are useful should certain applications not be available at your own computersystem. Anonymous FTP describes the public access to fileservers without a special user identification. The quick expansion of the internet makes a special search mechanism necessary in order to localize certain information quickly. With the help of operater systems like X.500, Whois, KIS, Netfind or Finger the search is made easier.
Gopher is an information system enableing the user to move within certain internet resources.
Thus Gopher is the first instrument offering a simple and common interface for different internet services. Internet services like FTP, Gopher or WAIS can be used via e-mails. This is of special importance should only e-mail be available to the user. The above mentioned services require a rather broad knowledge of the technology used thus limiting it for a long time to a rather small group of users. With the introduction of the World Wide Web this situation changed drastically.