The Deep Web: Is it really that deep?

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I never got into the Deep Web(DW). Not sure if I should even get there. True fact is, an ordinary guy can mess around in this "obscure" world. Probably the surface created and proliferated throrougly the ways to get into the desired destination with the intention of making the DW mainstream. So, does this mean that all the abusive content that you can find there will be banal in a few years?

What's your view? What do you think of the Deep Web? Have you ever went there?

The term "Deep Web" means different things to different people. The vast majority of it is neither illegal nor abusive in any way.

For what it's worth, I have several web sites that could be construed as being "Deep Web" simply because I'm the only one who knows how to get to them. There is no need for them to be indexed in any search engine at all. There's nothing illegal or secret about the information on the sites -- they are just mirrors of documentation sites that I put there for my own convenience. For example, mirrors of the documentation for docbook, db4, nasm, and the major versions of qt.

As for the parts that are illegal and abusive, I've found no reason to try to find them.

The Deep Web simply is content that isn't indexed by search engines. You won't find such a site if you don't have the url. It's often used to store large amounts of content, such as archives or databases, that a person or organisation doesn't want to make public. There's nothing sinister or abusive about such sites. The ones I have access to would be very boring for most people.

One question then: why did you post on the Deep Web instead of posting it in the "surface"?


Probably I should give it a check. Did I make wrong assumptions? In other words, there's no illegality? Well, the surface isn't based on legal things - there's always alternative thinking and alternative content.

You are probably confusing Darknet with Deep Web. Darknet are file sharing sites, and because they are very difficult to find, they are indeed frequently used for illegal activity or politically dissenting groups in oppresive regimes.

Not registering a website with a search engine or blocking the webcrawlers of a search engine isn't illegal in itself. Sometimes it isn't even possible to index a webpage, for instance when a webpage is dynamically generated like searches in a database are. If you've ever searched a data base or have played a game written in JavaScript, you've already been on the Deep Web.

I'm not confusing the concepts. In fact, I think they are equivalent but I get your point: You want to separate what's bad from what's good. I think you've done a great job there, makes ideas more organized.

1) They are local so that I have access to them even if the Internet is down and so that I don't have to use bandwidth to use them.
2) I don't have to waste time searching for them.
3) The versions of the references I have for my use match the versions of the software I am using. If I update my software, I update the web pages at the same time.
4) There is no use in burning bandwidth indexing the pages because I know where to find them.
5) If anyone else needs the reference, it isn't that difficult to find them elsewhere. For example, here is the same db4 documentation I have on another web site that is indexed: http://www.cs.sunysb.edu/documentation/BerkeleyDB/



There are certainly some illegal sites on the Deep Web. For example, there is something called Silk Road in which drugs are for sale.

But it is a very good bet that most of the content is legal.

The deep web is everything not easily searchable. A website like this is fully indexed by Google, but many similar forums are not. Or if you were to save an archive of this forum and put it on a file sharing site, that wouldn't be searchable. Or say you have a private Facebook page, or keep your family pictures on a private Photobucket account, or your company records are online requiring a password to access, all these things would be part of the Deep Web. It is more than just Tor and the Silk Road and the rest of the illegal/hardcore/taboo things you are thinking of.

As for your point, I do think the internet will lead to huge changes in our culture very soon. People who grew up after Napster have very little respect for intellectual property, for one thing. We are exposed to things on sites like 4chan on a daily basis that could be felonies, so those laws will probably not be taken as seriously in the future. The next generation will be much tougher to shock, and hopefully much more tolerant because of it.

Except maybe for The Haven and maybe one or two other forums.

Unfortunately, it has become mainstream. These kinds of things alwayd seem to follow the same life cycle though. It starts off a very small, close knit community, but the bigger it gets the more quickly it grows until it attracts the attention of "law enforcement" groups. Then you get things like this: http://publicintelligence.net/silk-road-complaint/

After that, someone replaces it with some cool new thing that will inexorably be destroyed by Google or the NSA or some other massive entity of pure evil and the cycle continues.

Well, I presume "deep web" means finding a site via its unique IP address.

I know some sites that have had DOS attacks and highjacks have told people to look up their IP address and not their URL. A URL can be recoded to take you elsewhere, but they can't change the IP address. Most people don't know a site's IP address and rely on the more familiar URL.

No.

"Deep web" merely means that it is not indexed. You have to know it is there by some other method than by searching on a search engine.

For example, we have a number of web sites that are not indexed. These are local copies of html documentation such as that for QT, NASM, DOCBOOK, and so on. There is no need to have them indexed because there are other places on the web for others to access them.

Also, they all have the same IP address. If you try to access them by IP address, you get some other site that is indexed.

Huh?

I could change our web sites IP addresses daily if I wished. Or even hourly. The URL would generally not change but the IP address certainly can.

Furthermore, many major web sites may reside on a number of different computers to alleviate congestion. When you ask for the URL, you get one of the IP addresses. If you only use whatever IP address the first time you access the site, you may find yourself unable to access it later. For example, the computer at that IP address may be down. It may have been repurposed. It may also have some other web site that is really slowing it down. It might be under attack.

On the other hand, there are web sites out there that don't have any URL and must be accessed by IP address. Usually such web sites don't amount to much. I used to maintain a test copy of a web page on a site with no URL. The only way to access that was by IP address.

To sum it up, if there is a URL for the site, use that, not the IP address.

I have been told that the Deep Web exists, but I have never been there.
Personally I would prefer not to as from what I was told it is VERY dark.

On the other hand, maybe it is like in the Matrix movies, and that the "Dark Web" is like the way to/access point to dial out of here. To Go Home:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDT6SCSUXvE[/youtube]

Those portion of wrongplanet.net that require a username and password to access such as The Haven would be part of the deep web.

I've been to that thing called "The Dark Web". It's nothing interesting, so don't expect to be amazed by it.

The "Members Only" forum requires a membership to read it, and the "Adult Autism Issues" forum requires a minimum age of 17 to read it - and therefore a membership to enable the age verification.
Apart from these restrictions (which also inhibit search engine trawls), all of WP is readable by anyone/anything.
None of WP is writeable without a membership.