The part of the internet that most of us use daily is called the surface web, accessible through regular internet browsers like Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, or Safari. Websites accessed through these regular browsers are also part of the surface web.
When you surf an online store, you can only access the part of the websites that is available to you as a customer, such as product listings, checking out, carts, etc. For instance, if you go to the Xfinity internet plans page, you can view the internet plans as the customer, select your desired package, view availability, and call customer support directly to purchase. But you can’t access the website as a seller or administrator and change the plans or pricing because you don’t have the credentials and whatever is required to get there. That is how the deep web works on the internet. Not everything is easily accessible to everyone; some may be accessible to a person as a customer, some may be to a seller, and some people may be using the web for both business owners and buyers. Where is the line drawn? How does the deep web work? Let’s explore ahead.
Dark Web and Deep Web: Are They The Same?
These two terms are often confused to be the same and are also used interchangeably. The deep and dark web make up around 90 percent of the internet, as compared to the surface web, making up only 10%. Also, the deep and dark web is not indexed by search engines and is not easily accessible through traditional means. However, these terms are still very different and used for different purposes.
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Deep Web
As mentioned before, the deep web is all the web pages not indexed by search engines like Google, etc. If you cannot find something on a simple Google search, it is more likely a part of the deep web. The deep web is web pages that can be accessed through login credentials. The search engines are designed not to be able to access content that requires login or payment. For instance, if you need to pay
However, the information on the deep web is not necessarily illegal or dangerous.
Dark Web
Search engines like the deep web do not index the dark web. However, the dark web is a layer of information or webpages that can only be accessed through overlay networks, which run on top of the surface internet.
Some tools like the TOR browser can access the dark web. The TOR websites have ‘. Onion’ roots instead of ‘.com’ ‘.org’ like regular websites, which can only be accessed with the TOR browser. The TOR browser is needed explicitly for such access because it is designed to counter random relays and encryption to connect to the website.
Most URLs on the dark web change regularly, which is why keeping track of most platforms on the dark web is harder. The dark web is also where you can remain anonymous, which is why it is the hub of most criminal activities.
Understanding the Deep Web
Understanding how the internet works will give you an idea about the deep web.
Crawling.
The process by which search engines scour the internet for website information and content is called crawling. More specifically, there are automated bots called crawlers that visit every link, starting from the search engine and moving on to the following site, collecting information, and so on. That is how search engines learn about specific websites and their web pages and go on to add them to their index.
Indexing
While crawling all over the internet, search engines get into the process of storing and categorizing information received from crawlers about certain websites. That is how it gets easier for them to find relevant information when you look it up on search engines. This process of storing and categorizing information is called indexing.
Serving
The final step taken by search engines is to take a search query from users, find results that seem the most relevant to the query from their index, and serve it back to the user.
These are all traditional processes of how the internet on the surface works. What makes the deep web different is that the websites and webpages on the deep web are invisible to crawlers. Hence, if you need to access a website on the deep web, you need to know its specific web address and required credentials.
Wrapping Up
The deep web might seem intimidating, but they are generally simple services to carry out online activities. They are not illegal like the dark web seems, but they are also not easily accessible. In the end, you only need to have their specific address and credentials to access a website on the deep web.
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