A gopher program connects you to a host computer through a menu. Many materials that were at one time only available through gopher have been replaced by more user-friendly website applications. Gopher directories were set up as a way to distribute information as text, graphics, or sound files over the Internet. As gopher information is moved to the web, gopher sites are disappearing or may contain outdated information that is no longer maintained. When you connect to a gopher site, you will see a very utilitarian menu of files and folders.
Icons indicate directories, text files, graphics files, and sound files.
Click on any menu item to display it on your screen. Faster than web. Navigate by clicking menu items. Rice University's gopher directory is considered to be the best, listing a multitude of sites in 37 categories including census, history, reference, religion, travel, and many others. The easiest way search for gopher files is to access the Galaxy search engine on the Web.