<s>
The	O
WHOIS++	B-Protocol
protocol	O
is	O
a	O
distributed	B-Architecture
directory	O
system	O
,	O
originally	O
designed	O
to	O
provide	O
a	O
"	O
white	O
pages	O
"	O
search	O
mechanism	O
to	O
find	O
humans	O
,	O
but	O
which	O
could	O
actually	O
be	O
used	O
for	O
arbitrary	O
information	O
retrieval	O
tasks	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
WHOIS++	B-Protocol
was	O
devised	O
as	O
an	O
extension	O
to	O
the	O
pre-existing	O
WHOIS	B-Protocol
system	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
WHOIS	B-Protocol
was	O
an	O
early	O
networked	O
directory	O
service	O
,	O
originally	O
maintained	O
by	O
SRI	O
International	O
for	O
the	O
Defense	O
Data	O
Network	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
WHOIS	B-Protocol
protocol	O
is	O
still	O
widely	O
used	O
to	O
allow	O
domain	O
ownership	O
records	O
in	O
the	O
Internet	O
to	O
be	O
easily	O
queried	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
WHOIS++	B-Protocol
attempted	O
to	O
address	O
some	O
of	O
the	O
short	O
comings	O
in	O
the	O
original	O
WHOIS	B-Protocol
protocol	O
that	O
had	O
become	O
apparent	O
over	O
the	O
years	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
It	O
supported	O
multiple	O
languages	O
and	O
character	O
sets	O
to	O
help	O
with	O
I18N	B-General_Concept
issues	O
,	O
had	O
a	O
more	O
advanced	O
query	O
syntax	O
,	O
and	O
the	O
ability	O
to	O
generate	O
"	O
forward	O
knowledge	O
"	O
in	O
the	O
form	O
of	O
'	O
centroid	O
 '	O
data	O
structures	O
that	O
could	O
be	O
used	O
to	O
route	O
queries	O
from	O
one	O
server	O
to	O
another	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
protocol	O
was	O
designed	O
to	O
be	O
backward	B-General_Concept
compatible	I-General_Concept
with	O
the	O
older	O
WHOIS	B-Protocol
standard	O
,	O
so	O
that	O
WHOIS++	B-Protocol
clients	O
could	O
still	O
extract	O
meaningful	O
information	O
from	O
the	O
already	O
deployed	O
WHOIS	B-Protocol
servers	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Whilst	O
WHOIS++	B-Protocol
as	O
a	O
white	O
pages	O
directory	O
service	O
never	O
really	O
took	O
off	O
compared	O
to	O
competitors	O
such	O
as	O
X.500	B-Protocol
,	O
it	O
did	O
gain	O
a	O
notable	O
amount	O
of	O
use	O
in	O
the	O
United	O
Kingdom	O
as	O
the	O
underlying	O
search	O
and	O
retrieval	O
protocol	O
of	O
a	O
number	O
of	O
subject	O
based	O
gateways	O
funded	O
as	O
part	O
of	O
the	O
Jisc	O
Electronic	O
library	O
programme	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
This	O
was	O
achieved	O
using	O
software	O
called	O
ROADS	O
that	O
provided	O
WHOIS++	B-Protocol
base	O
and	O
index	O
servers	O
and	O
CGI	B-Language
based	O
web	O
interfaces	O
to	O
WHOIS++	B-Protocol
clients	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
WHOIS++	B-Protocol
protocol	O
is	O
now	O
designated	O
by	O
the	O
IETF	O
as	O
a	O
historic	O
protocol	O
and	O
is	O
no	O
longer	O
deployed	O
in	O
new	O
systems	O
or	O
developed	O
.	O
</s>
