How Gopher nearly trumped the web
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It was the second killer app, after email, for the internet and to the average
person it is the internet. The World Wide Web (henceforth referred to as the
web) and the internet is indistinguishable to most people, they are assumed to
be the same thing, they are inseparable. More people wouldn?t know the
internet without the web which had a hand in driving the uptake of PCs and
internet connections world wide. Now email, and the web have become
indispensable tools. An internet connection is considered a necessity like
other utilities like gas, water, electricity etc?
But have you ever stopped to think what the internet would be like with out
the web? Would the internet have become as popular as it has with out the web?
Would email alone be enough to drive the uptake of internet connections and
make people want to get a PC? What would the internet look like? Would the
internet have made the jump from a university research project and tool to
main stream usage without the web?
It?s hard to say for sure, Nobody can ever answer with any certainty because
it?s all just hypothetical. But I have a pretty good idea of what the internet
might look like sans the web because that?s what nearly happened. There was a
real possibility that the web would meet a premature demise, and it would have
happened in the early 90s if it weren?t for chance and a particularly bad
decision.
In 1991 at the University of Minnesota?s Mark McCahill, Farhad Anklesaria,
Paul Lindner, Daniel Torrey, and Bob Alberti released Gopher. A new protocol
that was an alternative to the World Wide Web that was invented and being
developed by Sir Timothy John ?Tim? Berners-Lee around the same time.
Farhad Anklesaria chose ?Gopher? as the protocol name because several meanings
of the word ?gopher? are relevant to the protocol. The University of Minnesota
mascot is the gopher, a gofer is an assistant who ?goes for? things, and a
gopher burrows through the ground to reach a desired location.
Users of Gopher remember it as being ?faster and more efficient and so much
more organised? than today?s Web. Gopher was later described with detail in
RFC 1436 that was released in 1993, which states that Gopher goals were to
achieve:
A file-like hierarchical arrangement that would be familiar to users.
A simple syntax.
A system that can be created quickly and inexpensively.
Extending the file system metaphor, such as searches.
Gopher combines document hierarchies with services like Wide Area Information
Servers (WAIS), search engines Archie and Veronica (Gophers Google and Bing),
and incorporated gateways to other information systems by using other
protocols such as FTP and Usenet.
During the early 90's Gopher enjoyed wide spread and fast adoption for a few
reasons:
At the time there was general interest in Campus-Wide Information Systems
(CWISs) in higher education.
Gopher was quick and cheap to deploy. A Gopher server could be set up to
create an instant CWIS with links to other sites, online directories, and
resources with relevant ease, speed and with little expense.
While the web was still in its infancy Gopher had already gained wide spread
adoption, but by the late 90's Gopher expansion had largely ceased. It?s
stagnation can be attributed to several reasons:
Gopher?s structure was too rigid.
Gopher client functionality was quickly duplicated by early Web browsers, such
as Mosaic, which subsumed the protocol as part of their functions. Gopher
support in modern web browsers is patchy at best
But perhaps the biggest reason for Gophers decline in popularity and support
was that in February of 1993 the University of Minnesota announced that it was
going to start charging licensing fees for the use and implementation of the
Gopher server. The announcement gave rise to fears that a licensing fee would
also be charged for independent implementations. Because of this users were
scared away from Gopher and embraced the alternative, the web which CERN had
disclaimed ownership of.
The University of Minnesota later re-licensed its Gopher software under the
GNU GPL but it was too late the damage had been done. The decision to charge
for implementing a Gopher server was the straw that broke the camels back and
the break that saw the world wide web gain acceptance and users that it needed
to take off.
Although Gopher never completely died, it is still alive, people still use
Gopher mainly hobbyists and Gopher die-hards.
If the University of Minnesota had decided to keep Gopher free then who knows
what would have happened to the web? Was Gopher superior to the web? It
doesn?t really matter now because those decisions are history, water under the
bridge and Gopher has become nothing more than a historical curiosity. The web
came to dominate and it doesn?t look like it?s going anywhere any time soon.
