Which university created the Gopher protocol in 1991?

The University of Minnesota created the Gopher protocol in 1991. The project was led by Mark P. McCahill and a university team, who designed Gopher as a simple, menu-driven way to organize and access networked information.

Gopher was released in mid-1991 for the university’s campus-wide information system needs. Its interface presented users with hierarchical text menus resembling a file system, making it possible to browse documents, directories, searches, and links to other services. The protocol could also connect users to systems such as FTP, Usenet, WAIS, and the Archie and Veronica search tools.

Gopher is sometimes mistaken for an early version of the Web, but the two systems were separate. Gopher generally imposed a more rigid hierarchy, while the Web’s hyperlinked documents and graphical browsers proved more flexible as Internet access expanded. The name itself is a wordplay: it referenced the University of Minnesota’s mascot, a “gofer” who fetches information, and the burrowing animal.