gopher

n. [obs.] A type of Internet service first floated around 1991 and
obsolesced around 1995 by the World Wide Web. Gopher presents a menuing
interface to a tree or graph of links; the links can be to documents,
runnable programs, or other gopher menus arbitrarily far across the net.
Some claim that the gopher software, which was originally developed at the
University of Minnesota, was named after the Minnesota Gophers (a sports
team). Others claim the word derives from American slang gofer (from go for
, dialectal go fer ), one whose job is to run and fetch things. Finally,
observe that gophers dig long tunnels, and the idea of tunneling through the
net to find information was a defining metaphor for the developers. Probably
all three things were true, but with the first two coming first and the
gopher-tunnel metaphor serendipitously adding flavor and impetus to the
project as it developed out of its concept stage.

