The Gopher

The Gopher is a protocol developed in the early 1990s for browsing and retrieving information over the Internet. It functions like a directory system, allowing users to navigate through organized menus of text and links to documents, files, and other resources. Unlike the modern web, which uses complex hypertext, Gopher offers a simple, hierarchical structure that emphasizes ease of navigation and clarity. Though largely replaced by the web, Gopher was an important stepping stone in Internet development, providing a straightforward way to access and share information before the rise of HTML-based pages.