A large amount of molecular biological data is available on the WWW. These data are diverse in their distribution. Therefore, molecular biologists need an efficient data retrieval mechanism.
One approach is to use a standard search engine to access a web page. However, it is difficult to find all relevant information by this method. Another approach is to use a data retrieval tool that can be used to access the relevant web page. The most commonly used tools are: (1) Entrez; (2) SRS (Sequence Retrieval System); and (3) DBGET.
Entrez, established in 1988, is a data retrieval system, maintained by NCBI. NCBI links molecular biology laboratories of USA. It also exchanges data with European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and DNA Databank of Japan (DDBJ). Entrez is also used for searching other databases like OMIM, MEDLINE through Pub Med.
The European counterpart of Entrez, known as the Sequence Retrieval System (SRS), enables its users to access sequence information across a range of different database types in the EMBnet. DBGET is an integrated data retrieval system, developed and jointly maintained by the Institute for Chemical Research of Kyoto University and Human genome Centre of Tokyo University.