Website Builders.com

  • Home
  • Builder Reviews
        • Our team have carefully reviewed a selection of premium website building platform, making it easier for you to choose the right one.

          While most website builders are compatible for generic  website building, including online stores, blogs and generic websites, some are better than others depending on what your website type.

        • Website Builder Reviews

          GoDaddy

          IM Creator

          Jimdo

          Squarespace

          Voog

          Weebly

          Wix

          WordPress

        • Store Builder Reviews

          BigCommerce

          GoDaddy Store

          Shopify

          Weebly

          Wix

          Yola

        • Comparisons

          Wix vs. Weebly

          Shopify vs. BigCommerce

  • Start A Blog
  • How To Guides
        • With over 500 pages of detailed tutorials and guides, our guides cover a large chunk of online topics.

          Learn crafty tips and tricks to make your time online smooth. Our directory is useful for internet newbies, as well as aspiring website builders.

          Check out the full directory.

        • Building a Website

          How To Build a Website

          Name Your Website – Domain

          Picking a Web Hosting Service

          Content and User Experience

          More

        • Searching and Research

          Searching the Web

          Doing Research Online

          The World of Wiki

          Finding Videos Online

          More

        • E-mails – Basics and Advanced

          Getting Started

          Sending an E-mail Message

          Opening Attachments

          Sending Attachments

          More

        • Social Media & Communication

          Instant Messaging

          Online Networking

          Facebook

          LinkedIn

          More

        • Files, Downloads, Software & Installs

          File Formats and Extensions

          Install Plug-Ins

          How to Download Files

          Downloading Software

          More

        • Making Money Online

          Making Money with Facebook

          Affiliate Marketing

          Virtual Assistant

          Writing Articles

          More

        • Online Shopping

          10 Tips for Smart and Safe Shopping

          Smart Shopping

          Protecting Personal Information

          Looking for Discounts

          More

  • Website Builder Tools Your Business Can’t Do Without (+ Links To Useful Resources)
    • HTML Character Codes
    • Advertiser Tracking Cookies: There ARE Ways To Opt Out – Here’s How
    • Website Glossary
  • Our Blog
        • Recent Posts

          When you have awesome writers, it is easy to spread wisdom. Take a look at some of our recent posts on various internet and website related topics.

          Have any suggestions on topics? Don’t hold back, send us your ideas:

          [email protected]

        • 12 Simple Rules on How to Use E-mail Politely

          Live Chat Software: Is it Worth It? Facebook Says Yes.

          Algorithmic Warfare: Is it the Beginning or the End?

          How to Promote Your Pet Business Online

          DIY Marketing: 7 Steps for any Business Owner

        • 20 Ideas to Generate Your First Online Sale

          Complete Guide to Content Marketing

          8 Best Free Photo Editors for Product Photosraphy

          Press Kits: DIY to Free Media Hype

          Why Backlinks are Essential for SEO – How To Build Them

  • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • FAQ
    • How Did You Make This Site?
    • How the Website Is Funded
    • Our Team
You are here: Home / The Complete List Of How-To Tutorials For Internet Dummies / Find Answers Online: Strategies To Optimize Your Search Efforts / How To Safely Search The Deep Web – A Guide For Beginners

How To Safely Search The Deep Web – A Guide For Beginners

Disclosure: Your support helps keep the site running! We earn a referral fee for some of the services we recommend on this page. Learn more

Although search engines like Yahoo!, Bing and Google index billions of web pages and other electronic documents, this represents only a tiny part of the total information available on the World Wide Web. To unearth the buried treasure, you have to understand how to mine the data.

Contents

  • 1 Two Layers of Data
  • 2 The Dark Web
  • 3 Digging Below the Surface
  • 4 Start With a Traditional Search

Two Layers of Data

Think of the Web as having two layers: a shallow surface and an almost bottomless, deep level. In the top layer, the Surface Web, you will find all the web pages like the one that you’re now reading. This page and others like it have fixed web addresses or URLs (in this case, https://websitebuilders.com/how-to/search-the-deep-web). Also, the information contained in the page doesn’t change very often.

The Deep Web contains pages with dynamic content–data that changes frequently and can’t be indexed easily by search engines. Most of this information is stored in databases and is assembled “on the fly” when you query the database. For instance, when you search for an item on eBay, information is pulled from eBay’s database and instantly assembled on a web page for you. That page did not exist until you performed your search, which is what makes it dynamic; it was customized in response to your query. Because of this fact, search engines can’t readily index this information.

Other types of “deep” information include:

  • Multimedia (audio, music and video)
  • Photos and graphics
  • Job listings
  • Financial data (stock and bond prices, currency rates)
  • News
  • Travel-related data (airline and train schedules)
  • Information on sites that require passwords

The Dark Web

When people talk about the “Deep Web” they often think of illegal or illicit activities. That’s because they’re mistaking the entirety of the Deep Web for a relatively small subset, known as the Dark Web.

So what is the Dark Web, and how does it compare to the Deep Web?

The Dark Web is a collection of information that cannot be easily searched by traditional search engines. This may be because the information is contained in password-protected areas or stored in databases, as we’ve already discussed for more conventional Deep Web content. More often, sites on the Dark Web utilize specialized programs, such as Tor, to mask their IP addresses, making it impossible for conventional search engines to locate or index them. In order to access this type of content, users need to know precisely where to look and utilize the same IP-masking technology.

Did You Know?

The dark web – the anonymous network that empowers journalistic free speech and illegal commerce – is just one small part of the deep web. Most of the deep web is comprised of much more mundane content that just isn’t readily accessible to search engines.

TOR, or The Onion Project, is an open source program designed to provide private browsing and the ability for web users to skirt online censorship laws. It was originally sponsored by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratories in order to protect sensitive government communications, and the open source project is still partially funded by the U.S. government. Like many privacy projects, the security measures that make TOR an ideal tool for freedom of speech and national security also makes it the perfect tools for illegal activity. TOR is now the most-used technology for accessing the Dark Web.

The Dark Web has become a haven for illicit activity such as prostitution, drug trafficking, arms dealing, child pornography, and just about anything else you can imagine. Since Dark Web sites utilize IP-masking technology, they are nearly impossible to trace. And, much like the traditional Internet, the open nature of the Web means that even if authorities are able to shut down one illicit site, several will quickly rise up to take its place.

At this point, it’s important to reiterate that the Dark Web is only a small subset of the Deep Web. In order to find Dark Web content, you need to use specialized software and know where to look. You won’t accidentally fall into the Dark Web while searching Google or your library’s database search tool. From here on out, when we talk about searching the Deep Web, we’re talking about the far-more-prominent and perfectly legal content.

Digging Below the Surface

So how to do you find Deep Web pages? Fortunately, you can uncover this wealth of information by using specialized tools designed to mine databases. For instance, let’s say you want to buy a used copy of “Alice in Wonderland.” How would you find it? Searching on eBay or Amazon.com–essentially querying their databases–will be more fruitful than using Yahoo! or Google. The same goes for job hunting. Since job postings are stored in a database, most search engines can’t find them; searching sites like Craigslist or Monster is a better way to go.

The secret to successful searching is to understand what you want to know, and then using the right Web resource to find it. Ask yourself these questions:

  • Is the information time-sensitive, such as stock quotes or newspaper articles?
  • Are you looking for a photo or a video clip?
  • Do you want to find an MP3 music file or listen to a podcast?
  • Are you searching for specific types of content, such as blogs?
  • Are you looking for a special resource that is only available to a select group (and probably requires a password)?
  • Are you searching for a scholarly resource, such as an article from a magazine or journal?

Start With a Traditional Search

Unless you know the exact search tool you need to use, the best place to start is the same place you start most web searches, your favorite search engine.

Yes, we just said Deep Web content was not searchable using traditional search engines, but there are two ways these search engines can help.

First, in recent years all of the major search engines have started building their own tools to search these previously “unsearchable” resources. At one time, you needed to go to a special section in Google or Yahoo! to search images. Now image results are displayed as part of a standard search (though you will still get fuller results by going to their dedicated image search page). The same is now true for much of the most popular dynamic web content.

Did You Know?

Depending on who you ask, the Surface Web makes up between 1% and 5% of the web – the remaining 95% to 99% makes up the Deep Web.

When you type a stock symbol into Google search, information about that stock, including its current trading price, will be returned along with your standard search results. Enter two cities and you will get a list of flight quotes and an entry form to narrow down your search. Type a UPS tracking number into Bing, and they will tell you exactly where your package is and when it should arrive.

How is this possible? The major search providers are trying to simplify your web experience, so they now include results from specialized search systems. Essentially, when you enter a search term, they’re running a traditional search and displaying results for indexed World Wide Web sites, and they’re running searches through specialized database search engines (sometimes their own database, sometimes that of a partner) and showing you those results as well. It’s as close as they have yet come to bringing the content of the Deep Web to the light.

So what if a standard search doesn’t work? This is often the case, but don’t be discouraged. Try one more thing from that search window. Search for a specific type of database or search tool. Looking for scientific journal articles? Type “scientific databases.” Looking for podcasts? Type “podcast search.” While the search engine may not be able to mine the specific database you’re looking for, it can usually tell you what and where those databases are.

If you still can’t find what you’re looking for, you may need a very specialized search tool. We’ve listed some of the more common tools below, but it’s also a good idea to go old school. If you’re looking for a specific type of research or topic, check with your local library’s research librarian. They may know the exact tool you need.

And remember, when you find tools that you like, be sure to bookmark them for future use.

To Find Try Using
Audio and Music Files FindSounds
Yahoo! Music
Books, Journals, and Reference OAIster
Online Books Page
Library Spot
Blogs Alltop
Bing Blogs
IceRocket
Databases Science.gov
USA.gov
The WWW Virtual Library
News Bing News
Google News
NewsLookup
NewNow
Newsgroups and Groups Google Groups
Photos and Graphics Google Images
Picsearch
Yahoo! Image Search
Podcasts Podcastpedia
PodcastDirectory
RSS Feeds Feedage
RSS Micro
Sound Effects FindSounds
Video AOL Video Search
Google Videos
Yahoo! Video Search

To learn more, visit the Deep Web Research Blog.

Latest Posts

Hosting

Black Friday 2020: Website Builder & Web Hosting Deals For Webmasters [Updated]

Uncategorized

Why WebsiteBuilders.com Got Hacked (Yes, You Can Blame Social Warfare)

E-mail Internet

E-Mail Etiquette: 12 Basic Rules For Politely Using E-Mail

Marketing social networking

Live Chat Software: Should You Invest In It? (It’s Easier Than You Think)

Computer Science

Never Heard Of Algorithmic Warfare? Then You’d Better Read This

Marketing

How To Successfully Promote Your Pet Business Online With Minimum Effort

Most Popular Reviews

  • Website Builder Reviews
  • Wix
  • Weebly
  • Squarespace
  • GoDaddy Website Builder
  • Shopify

Recent Posts

  • Black Friday 2020: Website Builder & Web Hosting Deals For Webmasters [Updated] November 5, 2019
  • Why WebsiteBuilders.com Got Hacked (Yes, You Can Blame Social Warfare) March 23, 2019
  • E-Mail Etiquette: 12 Basic Rules For Politely Using E-Mail November 15, 2017

About WebsiteBuilders.com

Everything you need to know about the WebsiteBuilders.com team.

About Us

Our Team

How The Website Is Funded

Privacy Policy

© 2017-2019 Website Builders.com | Sitemap