Deep Web

Community Submission - Author: Anonymous

The deep web is the section of the World Wide Web (WWW) that is somewhat hidden. It contains pages that are not indexed by traditional web search engines - such as Google, Bing, and DuckDuckGo.

The deep web is the opposite term of the “surface web.” As such, it may also be referred to as the “hidden web” or “invisible web.”

Beyond the surface

The deep web accounts for over 99% of the content on the web. It is a part of the WWW that is different from the so-called “surface web,” which is the visible part of the web. The surface web is the most easily accessible layer. It includes all indexes (or searchable) pages.

What is the Deep Web?

By definition, the deep web includes both pages that are obscure or that can only be accessed through a specific authentication method. Being obscure means that they require a direct URL to be found (searching on Google doesn’t work). Still, the majority of the deep web’s content falls under the latter category.

Along those lines, we may consider as part of the deep web any website that asks for a login and password. In other words, many of the pages people access every day are actually part of the deep web. This includes social media profiles, email inboxes, and bank accounts.

This may sound confusing at first because the popular terminology has that the deep web is the obscure web. But since our personal accounts are not indexed on search engine pages, they are also considered as part of the deep web.

Deep web vs. dark web

It is also common to see confusion concerning the differences between the deep web and the dark web. In short, the dark web is a portion of the deep web that is anonymous.