gopher n.
A type of Internet service first floated around 1991 and
obsolesced around 1995 by the World Wide Web. Gopher presents a
menuing interface to a tree or graph of links; the links can be
to documents, runnable programs, or other gopher menus
arbitrarily far across the net.
Some claim that the gopher software, which was originally
developed at the University of Minnesota, was named after the
Minnesota Gophers (a sports team). Others claim the word derives
from American slang `gofer' (from "go for", dialectal "go fer"),
one whose job is to run and fetch things. Finally, observe that
gophers dig long tunnels, and the idea of tunneling through the
net to find information was a defining metaphor for the
developers. Probably all three things were true, but with the
first two coming first and the gopher-tunnel metaphor
serendipitously adding flavor and impetus to the project as it
developed out of its concept stage.
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gopher hole n.
1. Any access to a gopher. 2.
[Amateur Packet Radio] The terrestrial analog of a wormhole (sense 2), from which this term was
coined. A gopher hole links two amateur packet relays through
some non-ham radio medium.