What about the remaining 96%? This is what’s known as the “deep web.” The deep web comprises the “gated” internet, or to put it simply, pages that aren’t easily accessible. The terms deep web and dark web are often used interchangeably. However, this is erroneous, because the two are not the same. You access these and many other websites through an Internet browser like Firefox, Chrome or Internet Explorer, or through a search engine like Google. All these sites are part of the surface or “clear” web.īut if you think the surface web is a vast place, think again. The surface web is like a small lake compared to the vast ocean that is the deep web. Where the deep web accounts for approximately 7,500 TB of data, the clear web is only responsible for a mere 19 TB which is equivalent to 980,000,000 websites. The Iceberg Analogy: How do they fit together?īoth the clear and deep web can be accessed through any regular browser but, as noted above there are distinct differences between the two. Despite this, they work together to provide the world’s most powerful websites. How can you best describe their compatibility? The Iceberg Analogy. Many describe the deep web as the part of an iceberg that’s below water and the clear web is what’s visible above water. To take the analogy one step further, the portion of the iceberg beneath the water serves an important role in supporting the tip of the iceberg.Īs many know, the iceberg illusion refers to the much larger portion of the iceberg that’s hidden beneath the water, just like the deep web. If the deep web didn’t support sites on the clear web, the clear web would not exist or be useless. The deep web comprises all the pages that are not indexed by search engines, and are therefore not visible on Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). The likelihood that you’re using the deep web daily is high because the deep web doesn’t just refer to websites protected by passwords. It also includes websites that simply choose not to be ‘crawled’ by search engines. The deep web contains data or content that’s stored in databases and that support services on the surface web, e.g., social media platforms or bank websites. Even parts of subscription paid subscription services like Netflix are on the deep web. To access such pages, users must either know the account credentials or have a specific URL or IP address.įurther, this content is usually password-protected or placed behind a paywall. Thus, although these pages are not technically “hidden,” they can be challenging to find, unless you know how to look for them. Yet, the deep web doesn’t just contain private databases, it also contains illicit goods and services, or what we like to call the dark web. But this is where it gets a little tricky, the dark web is considered part of the deep web because they are both not indexed by search engines. However, the two are not indexed for distinct reasons: for the deep web, it’s due to the pages being hidden behind login walls whereas for the dark web, these pages are not indexed because they are accessible on a different network (but more on that later). Interestingly, many discuss the importance of dark web safety but, to the average internet user, deep web safety is more relevant. Particularly, due to the fact that you don’t need a special browser to search the deep web and therefore, you can end up on more dangerous web pages accidentally.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |