Deep Web

The deep web refers to all parts of the internet that are not indexed by standard search engines like Google, Bing, or Yahoo. This includes any content that is behind paywalls, requires sign-in credentials, or is blocked from Search Engine Crawlers|search engine crawlers.

The deep web contains mundane and everyday internet content such as user databases, webmail pages, registration-required web forums, personal profiles, medical records, legal documents, confidential corporate web pages, and other similar data.

Content on the deep web can be accessed using a standard web browser, but it requires specific knowledge of where to find it, like a direct URL. The deep web is vast, comprising a significant portion of the total internet content, much larger than the surface web (the part of the internet indexed by search engines).

The Dark Web is a subset of the deep web. All dark web content is part of the deep web, but not all deep web content is part of the dark web. While the deep web is mostly associated with legitimate private or confidential data, the dark web is often linked with illegal and underground activities.

Both require specific knowledge or tools to access, but the dark web's requirement for special anonymizing software like Tor makes it distinct from the broader deep web.