Editing Gopher (protocol) (section)

===Origins===
The Gopher system was released in mid-1991 by Mark P. McCahill, Farhad Anklesaria, Paul Lindner, Daniel Torrey, and Bob Alberti of the [[University of Minnesota]] in the United States.<ref name="wwwunleashed">{{cite book |last1=December |first1=John |url=https://archive.org/details/worldwidewebunle00dece/page/20|title=The World Wide Web unleashed |last2=Randall |first2=Neil |publisher=Sams Publishing|year=1994|isbn=1-57521-040-1|page=[https://archive.org/details/worldwidewebunle00dece/page/20 20]|url-access=registration}}</ref> Its central goals were, as stated in {{IETF RFC|1436}}:

* A file-like hierarchical arrangement that would be familiar to users.
* A simple syntax.
* A system that can be created quickly and inexpensively.
* Extensibility of the file system metaphor; allowing addition of searches for example.

Gopher combines document hierarchies with collections of services, including [[Wide area information server|WAIS]], the [[Archie search engine|Archie]] and [[Veronica (search engine)|Veronica]] [[Search engine (computing)|search engines]], and gateways to other information systems such as [[File Transfer Protocol]] (FTP) and [[Usenet]].

The general interest in campus-wide information systems (CWISs) in higher education at the time,<ref>{{cite newsgroup|url=https://groups.google.com/group/bit.listserv.cwis-l/browse_frm/thread/11db689fbe802834/bc8a60ab89926a4b?lnk=st&q=cwis+gopher&rnum=482&hl=en#bc8a60ab89926a4b |newsgroup=bit.listserv.cwis-l |title=PAPER: Topics |date=Jan 12, 1992 |access-date=27 July 2011}}</ref> and the ease of setup of Gopher servers to create an instant CWIS with links to other sites' online directories and resources, were the factors contributing to Gopher's rapid adoption.

The name was coined by Anklesaria as a play on several meanings of the word "gopher".<ref>{{Cite AV media
 |people=Mark McCahill, Farhad Anklesaria
 |title="Smart Solutions: Internet Gopher"
 |url=http://mediamill.cla.umn.edu/mediamill/display/69597
 |format=Flash
 |publisher=University of Minnesota Media Mill
 |location=Minneapolis
 |time=2:40
 |url-status=live
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720093228/http://mediamill.cla.umn.edu/mediamill/display/69597
 |archive-date=20 July 2011
}} McCahill credits Anklesaria with naming Gopher</ref> The [[University of Minnesota]] mascot is the [[Goldy Gopher|gopher]],<ref>{{cite web |title=Gophersports.com – Official Web Site of University of Minnesota Athletics |url=http://www.gophersports.com/ |access-date=17 August 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100814175230/http://www.gophersports.com/ |archive-date=14 August 2010}}</ref> a [[gofer]] is an assistant who "goes for" things, and a [[gopher]] burrows through the ground to reach a desired location.<ref name="gopher_protocol_rise_and_fall">{{cite web |url=https://www.minnpost.com/business/2016/08/rise-and-fall-gopher-protocol |title=The rise and fall of the Gopher protocol |publisher=minnpost.com |access-date=12 August 2016 |author=Gihring, Tim |date=11 August 2016}}</ref>