作為萬維網（WWW）崛起以前短暫稱霸網絡的互聯(lián)網協(xié)議,，Gopher以一系列可瀏覽的文件夾組織內容。超鏈接,、書簽,、甚至“上網沖浪”都是Gopher時代的產物,。

Gopher的開發(fā)始于1991年,，開發(fā)者為馬克·麥卡希爾為首的明尼蘇達大學雙子城分校研究團隊。和承載著未來夢想的一些保密互聯(lián)網項目不同,，Gopher是無心插柳之作,。研究團隊當時的主要工作是滿足大學里海量的計算需求，還要接聽電話提供技術支持,。而且有時還要頂著上級施加的壓力,。

麥卡希爾向《明尼阿波利斯郵報》表示，開發(fā)Gopher的宗旨是“讓普通人都能方便操作電腦,?！笨捎捎诋斈昝髂崽K達大學的高層還固守主機服務器模型，Gopher去中心化的模型被視為離經叛道,。在一場激烈爭執(zhí)的會議之后,，高層要求研究團隊終止Gopher項目。

研究者頂住壓力堅持開發(fā),，推出了一系列36小時的編碼會話,，于1991年4月正式發(fā)布Gopher。首臺配置Gopher的服務器設在一部蘋果個人電腦Mac SE/30上,。

Gopher的模式從此一炮走紅,。在幾百臺Gopher服務器涌現(xiàn)后，時任美國副總統(tǒng)戈爾接見了研究團隊,。Gopher的年度大會還吸引了世界銀行和微軟等知名機構參加,。

可惜好景不長。Gopher誕生初期的困難之一就是籌集繼續(xù)開發(fā)的資金,，研究者希望收取授權費用,，卻引起用戶反感。而且,，萬維網迅速迎頭趕上,。隨著調制解調器運行速度越來越快，瀏覽器也愈發(fā)先進,，萬維網比基于文本的Gopher吸引力更大,。到1994年春季，萬維網的流量已經超越Gopher,。1995年,，麥卡希爾的團隊轉而投入明尼蘇達大學一個緊急項目,，Gopher就此走向沒落。

不過,，一些安裝了Gopher的服務器至今仍在使用,。一些用戶認為這些服務器很有魅力，因為Gopher不支持廣告,，也無法追蹤用戶的瀏覽習慣,。日薄西山的Gopher沒準真有機會東山再起。（財富中文網）

譯者：Pessy

審校：夏林

It was Gopher, which organized content as a series of browsable folders, that introduced hyperlinks, bookmarking, and even the term “surf the internet.”

Gopher was developed starting in 1991 by a team at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, led by Mark McCahill. This was not some Internet Skunk Works tasked with dreaming about the future—the same team handled a huge swath of the University’s computing needs, including answering support calls. Gopher was largely developed in their off time—and often, against resistance from higher-ups.

McCahill tells the Post that the ethos behind Gopher was “putting computers in the hands of everyday people.” But the powers-that-be at the University of Minnesota were still defending the mainframe server model, and Gopher’s decentralized model was an affront to that. After a contentious meeting, the team was told to stop work on the project.

They kept working anyway, putting in a series of 36-hour coding sessions. Gopher was released in April of 1991, and the first server was set up on a Mac SE/30 PC.

The format took off. Hundreds of Gopher servers popped up, Al Gore visited the team, and an annual conference attracted heavy hitters like the World Bank and?Microsoft.

But it didn’t last. One of the early hurdles was an attempt to fund further development through licensing fees, which users took as an affront. And the Web quickly caught up, as faster modem speeds and better browsers made it more appealing than the text-based Gopher. Web traffic was greater than Gopher traffic by the Spring of 1994. McCahill’s team was diverted to an emergency university project in 1995, effectively killing Gopher for good.

But there are still Gopher servers out there, and for some users, they have a major appeal—the protocol isn’t ad-friendly, and can’t track your browsing habits. That could make the venerable format ripe for a resurgence.