Gopher_(protocol) The Gopher protocol is a TCP/IP Application layer protocol designed for distributing, searching, and retrieving documents over the internet, and was an alternative to the World Wide Web. The protocol offers some features not natively supported by the Web and imposes a much stronger hierarchy on information stored on it. Its text menu interface is well-suited to computing environments that rely heavily on remote computer terminals, common in universities at the time of its creation in 1991 until 1993.