As strange as this may seem Gopher and a few companion utilities have done much to help eliminate the need for knowing IP addresses, hostnames, or even where things are located. In fact, a well constructed gopher service can eliminate many of the hassles associated with file transfers as well. Ftp sites and files just appear as another gopher menu item. A skillful Gopher keeper can mix key documents, crucial ftp sites, selected phone books, and useful telnet applications to create an invaluable set of menus for users to explore on their quest for Internet knowledge. However, it takes more than just a gopher service.
Gophers take advantage of three key helpers to make find information even easier.
All three of these helpers create indexes that allow users to enter search critera to narrow an Internet quest. These three indexing tools are WAIS, Veronica, and Jughead. All three allow you to query Gopher, but each one indexes a different set of information. Let's take a look at the role of each of these indexing tools and then have you try a few searches on your own. However, before we do that let's discuss the program that got these guys going.