# Gopher it! **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 16, 2000, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gopher-it/29551 "2000-08-16T11:34:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2000, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gopher-it/29551/1 "2000-08-16T11:34:37Z")
Whatever became of gopher? Anyone remember gopher? Way back in the dim dark days when I was still ftp’ing my shareware files from wuarchive.wustl.edu’s giant mirror (from a command line interface on a 3270 mainframe terminal, no less), there was another internet protocol or tool, “gopher”, which I occasionally heard about but never took the time to learn how to use. Wasn’t it sort of like a search engine for files or file content that predated the internet? And you used something called Veronica to access it? I haven’t heard it mentioned in years. ---
**Author:** ![Crusoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/49beb7/32.png) [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2000, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gopher-it/29551/2 "2000-08-16T11:44:31Z")
According to my meagre sources, Gopher was a search protocol used by programs such as Veronica (and reputedly named after the mascot of the University of Minnesota). Gopher servers containing hierarchically organised text files could be referenced by subject. With the rise of web technology the popularity of Gopher declined, although it’s still used by specialist researchers. And if I’m wrong, blame _The Economist_! ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2000, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gopher-it/29551/3 "2000-08-16T11:47:34Z")
Somehow I managed to write > [@](#): > > predated the internet? y’all knew I meant “predated the web”, right? :o ---
**Author:** ![MinkMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minkman/32/19170_2.png) [@MinkMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MinkMan)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2000, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gopher-it/29551/4 "2000-08-16T15:15:16Z")
Gopher is still around. To check out what was the Internet was like before the web, try going to gopher://gopher.dejavu.org (That link should work at least with IE.) [http://www.dejavu.org](http://www.dejavu.org) also has an interesting internet history timeline, and emulators of several old browsers so you can see what the web was like “back in the day.”