This paper describes Hyper-G, a new hypermedia information system which combines the best of Gopher, WAIS, and World Wide Web. Hyper-G is specifically designed as a distributed, large-scale hypermedia information system supporting navigation in a large body of dynamically changing information without becoming "lost in hyperspace". Users may choose a hierarchical navigation paradigm, click on hyper-links, go on guided tours, or perform variable-scope searches. This paper presents Hyper-G from the user's perspective, outlines the basic architecture of the system, and describes its interaction with existing distributed information retrieval tools like Gopher, WAIS, and World Wide Web. 1