HYTELNET

Peter Scott, a librarian at the University of Saskatchewan, released HYTELNET in 1990 as a small DOS program. It held a linked index of telnet addresses: hundreds of library catalogues, databases, BBSes and free-access systems, each with its login name and instructions. You moved between pages with the arrow keys, and a later Unix version could open the connection for you.

The point was that the internet had no search engines. Reaching a university library in Australia meant knowing its address, and addresses otherwise spread by mailing list and photocopied printout. HYTELNET shared its premise with Gopher and the early web directories — organise the network by hand — and faded once Yahoo and the browser made telnet a sideshow.