Dr. Matt Lee (mattl)

Web standards, accessibility, free/open source software, old UNIX/TV/Music and occasional wargaming

Lost technology - Veronica, the Gopher Search Engine (2007)

Just found this – a Gopher search engine. The Gopher protocol itself contains a built in search mechanism.
Here’s how it works:-

gopher://hal3000.cx:2347/7
I’ve bolded the item type character, which is usually one of the following:

  • 0 = plain text file
  • 1 = directory listing
  • 2 = CSO search query
  • 3 = error message
  • 4 = BinHex encoded text file
  • 5 = binary archive file
  • 6 = UUEncoded text file
  • 7 = search engine query
  • 8 = telnet session pointer
  • 9 = binary file
  • g = GIF image file
  • h = html file
  • i = informational message
  • I = image file
  • s = audio file

So, at least for me, in Firefox, when I visit the search engine, I get prompted for my query before I even see the site. This puts even Google’s ubersimple homepage into a whole new light.

Published: Mon Oct 22 2007 23:44:01 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time) by