However, unlike the Pony Express, Gophers are still hanging around and are work a look. Gopher offers a menu driven way of searching the net. Instead of seeing cryptic directory and file names that mean little or nothing, the user sees a hierarchical menu with topics and descriptive file headings. They are great ways to explore net resources. You just go to a menu and make a choice.
Gophers are an easy way for the novice or the expert to gather information.
In fact they are responsible for the first big explosion of Internet users. Gophers removed the 'geek' factor from the net. No longer was it necessary to know Unix and spend long hours with your Captain Video decoder ring. All you had to do was find a subject of interest and follow the menu structure to the information you wanted. There are tools for searching gopher space.