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What exactly is the Deep Web? |
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<a alt="Rahul2001" href="http://deepweb.stackexchange.com/users/48/rahul2001">Rahul2001</a> |
2016-05-17 11:24:54 -0700 |
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(Originally published on Deepweb Stack Exchange by Rahul2001.)
The deep web is basically any section of the World Wide Web which isn't indexed by search engines.
Technically speaking, everything hidden behind login pages is also a part of the Deep Web. What does that mean? It means that the inbox you encounter after signing into your online email service is technically a part of the deep web, since that page isn't indexed by search engines.
This also means that by adding a noindex
attribute to your html page, you are technically making it a part of the Deep Web.
However, this isn't what the term 'Deep Web' usually means to people. When someone says 'The Deep Web', they are most likely referring to the TOR anonymity network...
Honestly speaking, it isn't very much. The only major difference is that the Deep Web isn't indexed by search engines...
Not really. Sure, you might see some really gruesome stuff, but probably nothing that will kill you.
The most popular way is to use anonymous networks, such as TOR. You are anonymous on these networks and (in most cases) your activity can't be traced back to you.
Accessing the Deep Web is perfectly legal. If you do wrong stuff, however, the story is different.
Since TOR is anonymous, it can be really difficult to locate wrong doers on the Deep Web. However, there have been successful attacks against TOR. You may get caught.
Browsing sites which deal with illegal stuff can also land you behind bars. To be safe, you should steer clear of the illegal stuff on the Deep Web.
The Dark Web then is classified as a small portion of the Deep Web that has been intentionally hidden and is inaccessible through standard web browsers.
So, the links you can open in Chrome / Safari / Edge / Internet Explorer / Firefox but cannot find on Google / Bing / Yahoo / DuckDuckGo are in the Deep Web, whereas any .onion
link you visit is a part of the dark web.
The size of the Deep Web cannot really be calculated, since we don't know what all is on there. It is estimted, however, to be 500 times the size of the surface web...
#Infographic
Here's an infographic you might be interested in:
NOTE: although the infographic is helpful, it does mess up between the terms 'deep web' and 'dark web'.