The Cutting Edge: Computing / Technology / Innovation : POSTCARDS FROM CYBERSPACE : Exploring the Depths of the Internet

If you want to explore the bottomless depths of the Internet, a gopher might serve as your guide.

Gopher is a ubiquitous Internet program so named for its usefulness in burrowing beneath mound upon mound of data (and also because it originated at the University of Minnesota, home of the Golden Gophers). Gophers are useful because they let you find what you want with easy-to-use menus.

A simple way to gopher is just to type “gopher,” since most systems have a default gopher available. But different gopher sites can serve as more direct gateways. One of the biggest such animals lives at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Va., and offers a master list of more than 4,000 Internet resources; just pick one and gopher takes you to it. To connect, type “gopher honor.uc.wlu.edu 1020” at your command prompt.

Another interesting gopher resides at Pipeline, a new Internet service provider in New York. The gopher menu here is very simple: Internet Highlights, the Reference Desk, Arts & Leisure, Weather Everywhere and Libraries On Line are a few choices from the top menu. To connect, type “gopher pipeline.com” at the prompt.

Remember that you don’t need any gopher software on your own computer; gophers live mainly on Internet servers.