The deep web is inaccessible through standard search engines and contains unclassified data. It’s much larger than the surface web and includes dynamic, private, and unrelated websites that are difficult or impossible to index.
The deep web is the part of the internet that is outside of standard research methods. A standard search engine finds web pages by viewing a single page and clicking all the links. This allows them to spread out from a single page like a giant spider web, finding page after page across the link. This process captures only a fraction of the pages that exist on the Internet; massive amounts of data are completely unclassified for one of many reasons. These pages will never appear in a standard search engine and are, therefore, invisible to most web users.
The surface web is the part of the internet that most users are familiar with. This part contains the standard web pages and web services that most users are familiar with. The deep web is made up of information that only specific parts of internet users know or have access to. The deep web is huge compared to the surface web; in the year 2000, it was nearly 50 times larger than the surface network.
The reason why the deep web exists is mainly due to limitations on search engines. Because search engines look through links, they are unable to access certain types of web pages. These pages never enter the system and, therefore, are never indexed. When a user searches for one of these pages, he will never find it, as the search engine does not register its existence or lack of access.
There are several types of pages that are difficult or impossible for a search engine to index. Dynamic and database-driven web pages are practically impossible, as they require specific inputs to exist. These web pages are created on the spot, often from user input. Because a dynamic page doesn’t exist until it’s needed, search engines ignore it because they don’t know what to ask.
Private or gated web pages make up another large portion of the deep web. Since these pages ask for credentials or login information, and the search engine has neither, access to the information on the other side of the login is blocked. Even with this problem, some login-based sites are part of the surface web. The website has special provisions to allow engines to search its pages. This is common among pages that have an open registration and want to generate additional traffic.
Another large portion of the deep web consists of unrelated or restricted websites. These pages contain no links to external resources or actively block existing links. This prevents search engines from coming across the page, so it’s never added to any lists. This used to be common among personal web pages, but changes in modern web usage have made most personal pages linked and indexed.
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