Here is something new and interesting for the Android community. The Overbite Project, a collective whose goal is to bring back Gopher to the internet via plugins and applications, is developing an app for Android. If you aren’t familiar with Gopher, it’s an early network protocol that predates HTML and the Web as we know it today.
According to the RFC, gopher was designed as a client-server protocol running over TCP/IP. Much lighter than HTTP and HTML, gopher provided essentially two options: menus and documents, both of which were accessed through port 70. The system was initially text-based, though basic image serving ability came later. There was no decorative markup for menu pages, which all looked basically (and boringly) the same; on the other hand, gopher was quick and consistent.
Essentially, it’s a lightweight, but efficient and basic browser. At this point you’re probably thinking, “When each new phone coming out is more advanced than the last, why should we care about such a limited browser?” Aside from the obvious usefulness to those that may prefer a stripped browser, just thing about the potential for basic feature phones running a version of Android along with Gopher.
Cameron Kaiser, lead developer behind Overbite, believes that it still has a role to play alongside the conventional Web. He says that the protocol could still be particularly useful on some mobile devices like feature phones, where bandwidth constraints and limited presentation capabilities make the full Web impractical.
While Gopher for Android is still in alpha, the APK and source code are available for download if you want to try it out for yourself. Gopher for Android only requires Android 1.5 or later, you can find the download page HERE.
Soure: ArsTechnica
