DARKNET
Mike Bergman, founder of BrightPlanet and credited with coining the phrase, said that searching on the Internet today can be compared to dragging a net across the surface of the ocean: a great deal may be caught in the net, but there is a wealth of information that is deep and therefore missed. Most of the Web's information is buried far down on sites, and standard search engines do not find it. Traditional search engines cannot see or retrieve content in the deep Web. The portion of the Web that is indexed by standard search engines is known as the Surface Web. As of 2001, the deep Web was several orders of magnitude larger than the surface Web.
It should be noted that the Deep Web is a separate entity from the dark Internet, which is made up of computers that can no longer be reached via the Internet. Also, the Dark Web - which consists of various anonymizing networks like Tor and the resources that they provide access to - is not synonymous with the Deep Web, but is considered as a subsection of it..
Although much of the Deep Web is innocuous, some prosecutors and government agencies, among others, are concerned that the Deep Web is a haven for serious criminality.
What a tangled web we weave, indeed. About 40 percent of the world's
population uses the Web for news, entertainment, communication and
myriad other purposes [source: .
Yet even as more and more people log on, they are actually finding less
of the data that's stored online. That's because only a sliver of what
we know as the World Wide Web is easily accessible.
The so-called surface Web, which all of us use routinely, consists of data that search engines can find and then offer up in response to your queries. But in the same way that only the tip of an iceberg is visible to observers, a traditional search engine sees only a small amount of the information that's available -- a measly 0.03 percent .
As for the rest of it? Well, a lot of it's buried in what's called the deep Web. The deep Web (also known as the undernet, invisible Web and hidden Web, among other monikers) consists of data that you won't locate with a simple Google search.
No one really knows how big the deep Web really is, but it's hundreds (or perhaps even thousands) of times bigger that the surface Web. This data isn't necessarily hidden on purpose. It's just hard for current search engine technology to find and make sense of it.
There's a flip side of the deep Web that's a lot murkier -- and, sometimes, darker -- which is why it's also known as the dark Web. In the dark Web, users really do intentionally bury data. Often, these parts of the Web are accessible only if you use special browser software that helps to peel away the onion-like layers of the dark Web.
This software maintains the privacy of both the source and the destination of data and the people who access it. For political dissidents and criminals alike, this kind of anonymity shows the immense power of the dark Web, enabling transfers of information, goods and services, legally or illegally, to the chagrin of the powers-that-be all over the world.
Just as a search engine is simply scratching the surface of the Web, we're only getting started. Keep reading to find out how tangled our Web really becomes.
The so-called surface Web, which all of us use routinely, consists of data that search engines can find and then offer up in response to your queries. But in the same way that only the tip of an iceberg is visible to observers, a traditional search engine sees only a small amount of the information that's available -- a measly 0.03 percent .
As for the rest of it? Well, a lot of it's buried in what's called the deep Web. The deep Web (also known as the undernet, invisible Web and hidden Web, among other monikers) consists of data that you won't locate with a simple Google search.
No one really knows how big the deep Web really is, but it's hundreds (or perhaps even thousands) of times bigger that the surface Web. This data isn't necessarily hidden on purpose. It's just hard for current search engine technology to find and make sense of it.
There's a flip side of the deep Web that's a lot murkier -- and, sometimes, darker -- which is why it's also known as the dark Web. In the dark Web, users really do intentionally bury data. Often, these parts of the Web are accessible only if you use special browser software that helps to peel away the onion-like layers of the dark Web.
This software maintains the privacy of both the source and the destination of data and the people who access it. For political dissidents and criminals alike, this kind of anonymity shows the immense power of the dark Web, enabling transfers of information, goods and services, legally or illegally, to the chagrin of the powers-that-be all over the world.
Just as a search engine is simply scratching the surface of the Web, we're only getting started. Keep reading to find out how tangled our Web really becomes.
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