Date: 01/01/1987As the Internet grew through the 1980s and early 1990s, many people realized the increasing need to be able to find and organize files and information. Projects such as Gopher, WAIS, and the FTP Archive list attempted to create ways to organize distributed data. Unfortunately, these projects fell short in being able to accommodate all the existing data types and in being able to grow without bottlenecks. One of the most promising user interface paradigms during this period was hypertext.The technology had been inspired by Vannevar Bush’s “Memex” and developed through Ted Nelson’s research on Project Xanadu and Douglas Engelbart’s research on NLS. Many small self-contained hypertext systems had been created before, such as Apple Computer’s HyperCard (1987). Gopher became the first commonly-used hypertext interface to the Internet. While Gopher menuitems were examples of hypertext, they were not commonly perceived in that way.