The deep web is an umbrella term for parts of the internet that you can't access using search engines like Google, Yahoo, or Bing. So what exactly is the deep web and how can we access it? If you want to find out, let’s take a look at the article below.
What is the deep web?
The deep web lies beneath the surface, accounting for about 90% of all websites. This would be part of an underwater iceberg much larger than the surface web. In fact, this hidden network is so vast that it's impossible to discover exactly how many pages or websites are active at any one time.
Continuing the analogy, large search engines can be thought of as fishing boats that can only "catch" sites close to the water. Everything else, from academic journals to private databases and more illegal content, is out of reach. This deep web also includes what we call the dark web.
How Big is the Deep Web?
The "hidden web" is huge, especially compared to the surface web. Some estimate that the deep web is 400 or 500 times larger than the surface web. Others even claim that 96% of online content is found on the deeper web and the rest is just surface content.
That's not surprising when you consider everything that makes up the depths of the internet. To give you an idea while writing this:
It is estimated that more than 306 billion emails are sent every day. Gmail alone has over 1.8 billion users. Imagine endless emails stored in Gmail, Microsoft Outlook, and ProtonMail.
There are more than a million academic papers uploaded to SSRN, files hosted by countless corporations and corporations, and private financial information stored by countless banks and other financial intermediaries.
Consider all the private pictures, videos and posts that Facebook's 2.89 billion users have uploaded over the years. Instagram has another 2 billion users posting content. While viral TikTok videos can find their way onto the surface web, more than 1 billion videos are watched on the platform every day. Most are not indexed or searchable.
The size of the deep web is truly staggering and, to be honest, a bit incomprehensible. In fact, the deeper web is so large that no one really knows how many web pages it actually contains. Its size is usually estimated by looking at the number of pages indexed by Google, currently around 50 billion pages.
How can we access it?
Unlike the dark web, you don't need a special browser to access it. In most cases, all that is required is a browser such as Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox or Microsoft Edge (among others) and the correct credentials to authorize your access. For email, social media accounts, and your bank's website, this usually means knowing your user ID and password.
Access to newspaper articles, journals, and research papers may require a subscription to pass a paywall. If you want to access your company's private database or website backend, you will need a login and authentication from your employer.
I hope this article will help you to learn what is deep web and how can we access it. In short, the deep, hidden or invisible web refers to all websites and pages that are not indexed by search engines. The indexed sites form a surface network. The dark web is a part of the deep web that requires a special browser to access.
