Gopher Still Going Strong
from the who-needs-the-web? dept
In 1993, most of my internet usage was based around email and gopher. Gopher, if you didn't use it, is a pre-web internet protocol for presenting text with hypertext links. I used to use gopher to check the weather report every morning. It wasn't long after I became addicted to gopher that I first heard about the "web" which I was told would replace gopher. It certainly made sense, though, I assumed the web was only a stepping stone to the next technology that would go beyond the web. It seems that the web became quite a lot more than I expected, and gopher has pretty much disappeared completely - except that it hasn't. There are some people who are still actively maintaining gopher sites and are even pushing for it to be used in more areas - such as for wireless devices. Of course, I'm not sure what (if any) advantages gopher really has over WAP, which didn't exactly set the world on fire as a wireless protocol for displaying hyperlinked text info on wireless devices (though, is now finding new uses more fitting for the technology).
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
