Gopher Client

Gopher Client: Obsolete Internet Protocol and Text-Based Client

Gopher Client is an antiquated internet protocol and client for accessing online content and services using a text-based hyperlink system. It was popular in the early 1990s but has since been replaced by the World Wide Web.

What is Gopher Client?

Gopher Client is a client application and network protocol used in the early days of the Internet in the early 1990s. It organized online content and services in a text-based hierarchical linking structure, similar to the World Wide Web but without support for graphics or multimedia.

Using a Gopher Client, users could browse online menus called gopherspaces consisting of links to documents, directories on other servers, or queries. It provided a simple way for users to find information and resources across the early Internet. Gopher sites were often created at universities, research centers, and other organizations to share documents, databases, and more.

The Gopher protocol and client applications were eventually superseded and largely replaced by the graphical and multimedia-oriented World Wide Web during the mid 1990s. The lack of support for graphics, the rise of graphical web browsers like Mosaic and Netscape, and the growing popularity of HTML led to the rapid decline in Gopher traffic and sites.

While very few active Gopher sites still exist today, Gopher Clients can still be used to access any remaining sites for a nostalgic glimpse at this piece of early Internet history.

Gopher Client Features

Official Links