Items on a Gopher menu may refer to files on several different computers, however, the process of file retrieval is transparent to the user. Gopher servers are accessed using client software such as Turbogopher on the Macintosh. Gopher servers are found in many universities, companies and organisations though they are likely to be superseded by Web servers in the future. The Web was designed to offer a user friendly and consistent interface to the vast resources on the Internet. The browser provides a very simple user interface.
Information is downloaded in the form of a file which is known as a page.
Within a document there is usually text, however other forms of data may also be present such as high resolution graphics, sound clips, and even movie clips. The Web is often described as a hypermedia system because of the capabilities of displaying these different forms of data. The main feature of the Web that makes it such a powerful tool for accessing information is the use of hypertext links. These are known as hypertext links. In this way information can be retrieved following logical hypertext links.