Gopher was an early competitor to HTTP. Gopher documents ("gophermaps") have a simple tabular presentation. The types of data and links which can be placed in a

Gopher was an early competitor to HTTP. Gopher documents ("gophermaps") have a simple tabular presentation. The types of data and links which can be placed in a gophermap are limited and non-extensible, as Gopher predates MIME types. Gopher also has no facility for encrypted communication. The web (both HTTP(S) and its preferential presentation format, HTML) is built on standards which are obscenely complex, which have features that do not have user privacy at heart (cookies, user-agent strings, css lazy-loading resources, etc., etc.), and these standards are, as I noted above, heavily guided by profit-motivated actors. While I agree that the top-level pitch might benefit from speaking to a broader audience, the FAQ and standard document linked from the main page provide answers to many of your questions.