作為萬(wàn)維網(wǎng)（WWW）崛起以前短暫稱霸網(wǎng)絡(luò)的互聯(lián)網(wǎng)協(xié)議，Gopher以一系列可瀏覽的文件夾組織內(nèi)容。超鏈接、書(shū)簽、甚至“上網(wǎng)沖浪”都是Gopher時(shí)代的產(chǎn)物。

Gopher的開(kāi)發(fā)始于1991年，開(kāi)發(fā)者為馬克·麥卡希爾為首的明尼蘇達(dá)大學(xué)雙子城分校研究團(tuán)隊(duì)。和承載著未來(lái)夢(mèng)想的一些保密互聯(lián)網(wǎng)項(xiàng)目不同，Gopher是無(wú)心插柳之作。研究團(tuán)隊(duì)當(dāng)時(shí)的主要工作是滿足大學(xué)里海量的計(jì)算需求，還要接聽(tīng)電話提供技術(shù)支持。而且有時(shí)還要頂著上級(jí)施加的壓力。

麥卡希爾向《明尼阿波利斯郵報(bào)》表示，開(kāi)發(fā)Gopher的宗旨是“讓普通人都能方便操作電腦。”可由于當(dāng)年明尼蘇達(dá)大學(xué)的高層還固守主機(jī)服務(wù)器模型，Gopher去中心化的模型被視為離經(jīng)叛道。在一場(chǎng)激烈爭(zhēng)執(zhí)的會(huì)議之后，高層要求研究團(tuán)隊(duì)終止Gopher項(xiàng)目。

研究者頂住壓力堅(jiān)持開(kāi)發(fā)，推出了一系列36小時(shí)的編碼會(huì)話，于1991年4月正式發(fā)布Gopher。首臺(tái)配置Gopher的服務(wù)器設(shè)在一部蘋(píng)果個(gè)人電腦Mac SE/30上。

Gopher的模式從此一炮走紅。在幾百臺(tái)Gopher服務(wù)器涌現(xiàn)后，時(shí)任美國(guó)副總統(tǒng)戈?duì)柦右?jiàn)了研究團(tuán)隊(duì)。Gopher的年度大會(huì)還吸引了世界銀行和微軟等知名機(jī)構(gòu)參加。

可惜好景不長(zhǎng)。Gopher誕生初期的困難之一就是籌集繼續(xù)開(kāi)發(fā)的資金，研究者希望收取授權(quán)費(fèi)用，卻引起用戶反感。而且，萬(wàn)維網(wǎng)迅速迎頭趕上。隨著調(diào)制解調(diào)器運(yùn)行速度越來(lái)越快，瀏覽器也愈發(fā)先進(jìn)，萬(wàn)維網(wǎng)比基于文本的Gopher吸引力更大。到1994年春季，萬(wàn)維網(wǎng)的流量已經(jīng)超越Gopher。1995年，麥卡希爾的團(tuán)隊(duì)轉(zhuǎn)而投入明尼蘇達(dá)大學(xué)一個(gè)緊急項(xiàng)目，Gopher就此走向沒(méi)落。

不過(guò)，一些安裝了Gopher的服務(wù)器至今仍在使用。一些用戶認(rèn)為這些服務(wù)器很有魅力，因?yàn)镚opher不支持廣告，也無(wú)法追蹤用戶的瀏覽習(xí)慣。日薄西山的Gopher沒(méi)準(zhǔn)真有機(jī)會(huì)東山再起。（財(cái)富中文網(wǎng)）

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.