Gopher was designed to access a Web server or database via the Internet. It requires that files be stored in a menu-style hierarchy on a Gopher server that is accessible through a Gopher-enabled client browser and/or directly. It initially supported only text-based file/document access but later came to support some image formats such as GIF and JPEG.

Gopher was succeeded by the HTTP protocol and now has very few implementations. Gopher-based databases, servers or websites can be accessed through two search engines: Veronica and Jughead.