Jughead
A search tool that can be used to find information within Gopher directories.
An acronym for Jonzy’s Universal Gopher Hierarchy Excavation and Display, Jughead searches and indexes Gopher directories by keywords. Because Jughead only searches high-level menu items and does not include any file name menus, it is a much less powerful tool than Veronica. Jughead is also only capable of searching one server at a time.
Jughead was developed in 1993 by Rhett Jones, and in 2006 Jones released a modified version of the program under the name Jugtail (the original name was changed to avoid a trademark issue with Archie Comic Publications, Inc.). The source code for Jugtail is available under General Public License, an open-source standard that allows anyone to download, utilize, modify, and even redistribute the original software.
Jughead utilizes a command line interface, meaning it works in a text-based environment and you need to know specific search commands in order to utilize the program.
Also See: Gopher, Veronica, Searching Databases
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Jughead still used?
Jughead still exists under its new name, Jugtail, and is available for download for free. There are still a small number of Jugtail servers online; however, these are largely restricted to hobbyist or highly-loyal Jughead/Jugtail fans. Gopher has not been widely used in over 20 years, and even for the handful of Gopher servers still in operation, most Gopher users tend to prefer the more versatile search tool, Veronica.