Management Information System (MIS) Practice Exam

Prior to the Web, which Internet tool was used for content access?

1. File Transfer Protocol (FTP)

2. Gopher

3. Telnet

4. Usenet

The correct answer is: Gopher

The correct choice highlights Gopher as a key tool used for accessing content on the Internet prior to the advent of the World Wide Web. Gopher, developed in the early 1990s, was a protocol that provided a structured way to access text-based information over the Internet. It organized content in a hierarchical manner, allowing users to navigate through menus and retrieve documents with relative ease. Gopher's design catered primarily to distributing academic and research materials and enabled users to access documents by navigating through directories rather than using hyperlinks, which eventually came to dominate web navigation. Its simplicity and text-based interface made it popular in academic circles before being largely supplanted by the more versatile and visually oriented World Wide Web. While other tools like File Transfer Protocol (FTP) and Telnet were also used to access various types of Internet content, their primary functions diverged from that of Gopher. FTP is mainly used for transferring files, while Telnet provides a way to log into remote systems. Usenet allows for discussion and sharing of news articles and messages but does not serve the same purpose of structured content navigation as Gopher. Thus, Gopher stands out as the significant pre-Web tool specifically designed for content access on the Internet.