Editing Gopher (protocol) (section)

==Usage==
The Gopher protocol was invented by a team led by [[Mark P. McCahill]]<ref>{{Triangulation|264|Mark P. McCahill}}</ref> at the [[University of Minnesota]]. It offers some features not natively supported by the Web and imposes a much stronger hierarchy on the documents it stores. Its text menu interface is well-suited to computing environments that rely heavily on remote [[Computer terminal#Text terminals|text-oriented computer terminals]], which were still common at the time of its creation in [[1991]], and the simplicity of its protocol facilitated a wide variety of client implementations.

<gallery>
File:Gopher in Firefox 1.5.png|Firefox 1.5 (2005)
</gallery>

Gopher's hierarchical structure provided a platform for the first large-scale electronic library connections.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A1UoH2vGKE8C&pg=PA69|title=Electronic collection management|author=Suzan D. McGinnis |pages=69–72 |isbn=0-7890-1309-6|year=2001|publisher=Routledge}}</ref> The Gopher protocol is still in use by enthusiasts, and although it has been almost entirely supplanted by the Web, a small population of actively-maintained servers remains.<ref name="Barras-2009">{{cite web |first=Colin |last=Barras |date=12 March 2009 |title=How Moore's Law saved us from the Gopher web |website=New Scientist|url=https://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2009/03/how-moores-law-saved-the-web.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110831183201/http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2009/03/how-moores-law-saved-the-web.html |archive-date=31 August 2011 |access-date=20 September 2011}}</ref>

===Origins===
The Gopher system was released in mid-1991 by Mark P. McCahill, Farhad Anklesaria, Paul Lindner, Daniel Torrey, and Bob Alberti of the [[University of Minnesota]] in the United States.<ref name="wwwunleashed">{{cite book |last1=December |first1=John |url=https://archive.org/details/worldwidewebunle00dece/page/20|title=The World Wide Web unleashed |last2=Randall |first2=Neil |publisher=Sams Publishing|year=1994|isbn=1-57521-040-1|page=[https://archive.org/details/worldwidewebunle00dece/page/20 20]|url-access=registration}}</ref> Its central goals were, as stated in {{IETF RFC|1436}}:

* A file-like hierarchical arrangement that would be familiar to users.
* A simple syntax.
* A system that can be created quickly and inexpensively.
* Extensibility of the file system metaphor; allowing addition of searches for example.

Gopher combines document hierarchies with collections of services, including [[Wide area information server|WAIS]], the [[Archie search engine|Archie]] and [[Veronica (search engine)|Veronica]] [[Search engine (computing)|search engines]], and gateways to other information systems such as [[File Transfer Protocol]] (FTP) and [[Usenet]].

The general interest in campus-wide information systems (CWISs) in higher education at the time,<ref>{{cite newsgroup|url=https://groups.google.com/group/bit.listserv.cwis-l/browse_frm/thread/11db689fbe802834/bc8a60ab89926a4b?lnk=st&q=cwis+gopher&rnum=482&hl=en#bc8a60ab89926a4b |newsgroup=bit.listserv.cwis-l |title=PAPER: Topics |date=Jan 12, 1992 |access-date=27 July 2011}}</ref> and the ease of setup of Gopher servers to create an instant CWIS with links to other sites' online directories and resources, were the factors contributing to Gopher's rapid adoption.

The name was coined by Anklesaria as a play on several meanings of the word "gopher".<ref>{{Cite AV media
 |people=Mark McCahill, Farhad Anklesaria
 |title="Smart Solutions: Internet Gopher"
 |url=http://mediamill.cla.umn.edu/mediamill/display/69597
 |format=Flash
 |publisher=University of Minnesota Media Mill
 |location=Minneapolis
 |time=2:40
 |url-status=live
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720093228/http://mediamill.cla.umn.edu/mediamill/display/69597
 |archive-date=20 July 2011
}} McCahill credits Anklesaria with naming Gopher</ref> The [[University of Minnesota]] mascot is the [[Goldy Gopher|gopher]],<ref>{{cite web |title=Gophersports.com – Official Web Site of University of Minnesota Athletics |url=http://www.gophersports.com/ |access-date=17 August 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100814175230/http://www.gophersports.com/ |archive-date=14 August 2010}}</ref> a [[gofer]] is an assistant who "goes for" things, and a [[gopher]] burrows through the ground to reach a desired location.<ref name="gopher_protocol_rise_and_fall">{{cite web |url=https://www.minnpost.com/business/2016/08/rise-and-fall-gopher-protocol |title=The rise and fall of the Gopher protocol |publisher=minnpost.com |access-date=12 August 2016 |author=Gihring, Tim |date=11 August 2016}}</ref>

===Decline===
The [[World Wide Web]] was in its infancy in 1991, and Gopher services quickly became established.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Gregersen |first1=Erik |last2=Featherly |first2=Kevin |date=2016-05-11 |title=ARPANET |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/ARPANET |access-date=2023-05-03 |publisher=[[Encyclopedia Britannica]] |language=en}}</ref> By the late 1990s, Gopher had ceased expanding. Several factors contributed to Gopher's stagnation:

* In February 1993, the [[University of Minnesota]] announced that it would charge licensing fees for the use of its implementation of the Gopher server.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.funet.fi/pub/vms/networking/gopher/gopher-software-licensing-policy.ancient |title=Subject: University of Minnesota Gopher software licensing policy |publisher=Funet.fi |access-date=2015-08-12}}</ref><ref name="gopher_protocol_rise_and_fall"/> Users became concerned that fees might also be charged for independent implementations.<ref>{{cite newsgroup|author=JQ Johnson |url=https://groups.google.com/groups?selm=1mj6cb$6gm@pith.uoregon.edu |title=gopher licensing |date=25 February 1993 |access-date=27 July 2011 |newsgroup=comp.infosystems.gopher}}</ref><ref>{{cite newsgroup|author=Joel Rubin |url=https://groups.google.com/groups?selm=36e4c2f1.10244576@nntp.best.ix.netcom.com |title=CW from the VOA server page |newsgroup=rec.radio.shortwave |date=3 March 1999 |access-date=27 July 2011}}</ref> Gopher expansion stagnated, to the advantage of the World Wide Web, to which [[CERN]] disclaimed ownership.<ref>{{cite book |title=Hacking Capitalism: The Free and Open Source Software Movement |url=https://archive.org/details/hackingcapitalis00sder_520 |url-access=limited |author=Johan Söderberg |year=2007 |publisher=Routledge |page=[https://archive.org/details/hackingcapitalis00sder_520/page/n33 25] |isbn=978-0-415-95543-0}}</ref> In September 2000, the University of Minnesota re-licensed its Gopher software under the [[GNU General Public License]].<ref>{{cite newsgroup|url=https://groups.google.com/d/msg/comp.infosystems.gopher/4A-LS_A6qtA/nT89yWKzzsIJ |title=UMN Gopher(d) released under the GPL!|date=Sep 1, 2000 |newsgroup=comp.infosystems.gopher|access-date=2015-08-12}}</ref>
* Gopher client functionality was quickly duplicated by the early [[Mosaic (web browser)|Mosaic]] web browser, which subsumed its protocol.
* Gopher has a more rigid structure than the free-form HyperText Markup Language ([[HTML]]) of the Web. Every Gopher document has a defined format and type, and the typical user navigates through a single server-defined menu system to get to a particular document. This can be quite different from the way a user finds documents on the Web.
* Failure to follow the open systems model and bad publicity in comparison to the World Wide Web<ref>{{cite web|url=https://ils.unc.edu/callee/gopherpaper.htm |title=Where Have all the Gophers Gone? Why the Web beat Gopher in the Battle for Protocol Mind Share |author=Christopher (Cal) Lee |date=23 April 1999}}</ref>

Gopher remains in active use by its enthusiasts, and there have been attempts to revive Gopher on modern platforms and mobile devices. One attempt is The Overbite Project,<ref name="floodgap1"/> which hosts various browser extensions and modern clients.

===Server census===
[[File:Gopher servers by year.svg|thumb|Number of Gopher servers from 2012 to 2022]]
*{{As of|2012}}, there remained about 160 gopher servers indexed by [[Veronica (search engine)|Veronica-2]],<ref name="Veronica report">{{cite web |url=http://gopher.floodgap.com/gopher/gw?gopher/0/v2/vstat |title=Floodgap Gopher-HTTP gateway |website=Gopher.floodgap.com |access-date=2017-01-05}}</ref> reflecting a slow growth from 2007 when there were fewer than 100.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://db.tidbits.com/article/8909 |title=Down the Gopher Hole |last=Kaiser |first=Cameron |publisher=TidBITS |date=19 March 2007 |access-date=23 March 2007}}</ref> They are typically infrequently updated. On these servers, Veronica indexed approximately 2.5 million unique selectors. A handful of new servers were being set up every year by hobbyists with over 50 having been set up and added to Floodgap's list since 1999.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://gopher.floodgap.com/1/new |title=This is a Gopher link|website=gopher.floodgap.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110804183515/http://gopher.floodgap.com/1/new |archive-date=4 August 2011}}</ref> A snapshot of Gopherspace in 2007 circulated on [[BitTorrent]] and was still available in 2010.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://changelog.complete.org/archives/1466-download-a-piece-of-internet-history |title=Download A Piece of Internet History |publisher=The Changelog |date=28 April 2010 |access-date=27 July 2011 |url-status=live |archive-url=http://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/20110723002553/http://changelog.complete.org/archives/1466-download-a-piece-of-internet-history |archive-date=23 July 2011}}</ref> Due to the simplicity of the Gopher protocol, setting up new servers or adding Gopher support to browsers is often done in a [[tongue-in-cheek]] manner, principally on [[April Fools' Day]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omniweb/releasenotes/ |title=Release Notes – OmniWeb 5 – Products |publisher=The Omni Group |access-date=27 July 2011 |quote=OmniWeb 5.9.2 Released 1 April 2009: Implemented ground-breaking support for the revolutionary Gopher protocol—a first for WebKit-based browsers! For a list of Gopher servers, see the Floodgap list. Enjoy! |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110807064232/http://www.omnigroup.com/products/omniweb/download/releasenotes/ |archive-date=7 August 2011}}. The same text appears in the 5.10 release of 27 August 2009 further down the page, copied from the 5.9.2 unstable branch. The Floodgap list referred to is at [https://gopher.floodgap.com/gopher/gw?gopher/1/new Floodgap: new Gopher servers] and does not itself refer to April Fools' Day.</ref>
*In November 2014 Veronica indexed 144 gopher servers,<ref name="Veronica report"/> reflecting a small drop from 2012, but within these servers Veronica indexed approximately 3&nbsp;million unique selectors.
*In March 2016 Veronica indexed 135 gopher servers,<ref name="Veronica report"/> within which it indexed approximately 4&nbsp;million unique selectors.
*In March 2017 Veronica indexed 133 gopher servers,<ref name="Veronica report"/> within which it indexed approximately 4.9&nbsp;million unique selectors.
*In May 2018 Veronica indexed 260 gopher servers,<ref name="Veronica report"/> within which it indexed approximately 3.7&nbsp;million unique selectors.
*In May 2019 Veronica indexed 320 gopher servers,<ref name="Veronica report"/> within which it indexed approximately 4.2&nbsp;million unique selectors.
*In January 2020 Veronica indexed 395 gopher servers,<ref name="Veronica report"/> within which it indexed approximately 4.5&nbsp;million unique selectors.
*In February 2021 Veronica indexed 361 gopher servers,<ref name="Veronica report"/> within which it indexed approximately 6&nbsp;million unique selectors.
*In February 2022 Veronica indexed 325 gopher servers,<ref name="Veronica report"/> within which it indexed approximately 5&nbsp;million unique selectors.