Deep Web - Introduction
The Deep Web is World Wide Web content that is not part of the Surface Web,
which is indexed by standard search engines.
It is also called the Deep net, Invisible Web or Hidden Web.
Largest growing category of new information on the Internet.
400-550X more public information than the Surface Web.
Total quality 1000-2000X greater than the quality of the Surface Web.
History
Jill Ellsworth used the term invisible Web in 1994 to refer to websites that were not
registered with any search engine.
Mike Bergman cited a January 1996 article by Frank Garcia:
“It would be a site that's possibly reasonably designed, but they didn't bother to
register it with any of the search engines. So, no one can find them! You're hidden.
I call that the invisible Web”.
Another early use of the term Invisible Web was by Bruce Mount and Matthew B. Koll
of Personal Library Software in 1996.
The first use of the specific term Deep Web, now generally accepted, occurred in the
aforementioned 2001 Bergman study.
Dynamic content
• Dynamic pages which are returned in response to a submitted query or accessed only
through a form
• especially if open-domain input elements (such as text fields) are used
• such fields are hard to navigate without domain knowledge
Unlinked Content
• Pages which are not linked to by other pages
• Which may prevent web crawling programs from accessing the content
• This content is referred to as pages without backlinks (or in links).
Private Web: sites that require registration and login (password-protected resources).
Contextual Web: pages with content varying for different access contexts (e.g.,
ranges of client IP addresses or previous navigation sequence).
Limited access content: sites that limit access to their pages in a technical way
(e.g., using the Robots Exclusion Standard, CAPTCHAs, or no-cache Pragma HTTP
headers which prohibit search engines from browsing them and creating cached copies.
Scripted content
pages that are only accessible through links produced by JavaScript as well as content
dynamically downloaded from Web servers via Flash or Ajax solutions.
Non-HTML/text content
textual content encoded in multimedia (image or video) files or specific file formats not
handled by search engines.
Deep Potential
The deep Web is an endless repository for a mind-reeling amount of information.
It's powerful. It unleashes human nature in all its forms, both good and bad.
There are engineering databases, financial information of all kinds, medical papers, pictures,
illustrations ... the list goes on, basically, forever.
For example, construction engineers could potentially search research papers at multiple universities in
order to find the latest and greatest in bridge-building materials.
Doctors could swiftly locate the latest research on a specific disease.
The potential is unlimited. The technical challenges are daunting. That's the draw of the deep Web.
Money-related transactions
You may wonder how any money-related transactions can happen when sellers
and buyers can't identify each other.
That's where Bitcoin comes in.
Bitcoin, it's basically an encrypted digital currency.
Like regular cash, Bitcoin is good for transactions of all kinds, and notably, it
also allows for anonymity; no one can trace a purchase, illegal or otherwise.
When paired properly with TOR, it's perhaps the closest thing to a foolproof
way to buy and sell on the web.
The Brighter Side of Darkness
The deep Web is home to alternate search engines, e-mail services, file storage, file sharing, social media,
chat sites, news outlets and whistleblowing sites, as well as sites that provide a safer meeting ground for
political dissidents and anyone else who may find themselves on the fringes of society.
In an age where NSA-type surveillance is omnipresent and privacy seems like a thing of the past, the dark
Web offers some relief to people who prize their anonymity.
Bitcoin may not be entirely stable, but it offers privacy, which is something your credit card company most
certainly does not.
For citizens living in countries with violent or oppressive leaders, the dark Web offers a more secure way to
communicate with like-minded individuals.
Conclusion
The deep web will continue to perplex and fascinate everyone who uses the internet.
It contains an enthralling amount of knowledge that could help us evolve technologically and as a species
when connected to other bits of information.
And of course, its darker side will always be lurking, too, just as it always does in human nature.
The deep web speaks to the fathomless, scattered potential of not only the internet, but the human race, too.