What was the Gopher search engine?
A Gopher search engine is designed to index and retrieve information from Gopher servers. Since Gopher is a text-based protocol for organizing and distributing documents over the Internet, a Gopher search engine allows users to search for resources within the Gopher network.
Gopher search engines work by crawling Gopher servers, indexing the contents they find, and building a searchable database of Gopher resources. Users can then enter search queries to find specific documents or files hosted on Gopher servers.
Gopher search engines were more prevalent during the early days of the Internet when Gopher was popular. They helped users navigate and locate information within the Gopher network. However, with the rise of the World Wide Web and the decline of Gopher, the usage and availability of Gopher search engines have diminished significantly.
Today, Gopher search engines are relatively rare, and most search engines primarily focus on indexing and retrieving information from the web.