Gopher

The Gopher protocol, launched in 1991 at the University of Minnesota, was an early internet system for organizing and retrieving text-based documents. Named after the university’s mascot, it aimed to provide a simple, hierarchical menu-driven alternative to the chaotic early web.

By the mid 1990s, there were thousands of gopher servers online. They were quick and free, so universities and libraries used them like crazy. Then, Mosaic happened and gopher disappeared...mostly.

This article is mainly for my own use. I will add gopher:// sites as I find them. I am using Overbite for Android to view and interact with these old web pages.

gopher sites

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• Floodgap Systems: gopher://gopher.floodgap.com:70/
• Gopherpedia: gopher://gopherpedia.com:70/
• Project Gutenberg: gopher://dante.pglaf.org:70/
• SDF Public Access UNIX System: gopher://sdf.org:70/
• Mozz’s Cocktails: gopher://mozz.us:7003/
• Telefisk: gopher://telefisk.org:70/
• Raspberry Pi of Death: gopher://gopher.leveck.us:70/