Nowadays, Internet has become the main resource for everyone to find any kinds of information that they want. At this age, we actually spend most of our time to travel on the Internet. We can do many things online such as transaction, social networking, finding location on the map, making money, etc. Doing research is one of the main purposes for using Internet for most of the people. Google, Yahoo, and Bing are the common search tools for everyone for doing their research in variety type of information. But, do you know that when you do your research by using these tools. They will only search page that they have indexed, which is only about 4% of total World Wide Web (Why Businesses Needs to Understand the Deep Web, 2013).
And the rest 96% is in underground website, which people call it “Deep Web” or “Invisible Website”. This unknown resource is well-known for terroristic communication, guns trading, drugs trading, fake passports ID, Credit Card trading, and many kinds of illegals stuffs that u can find on Deep Web. Deep Web also can hold the private files for sharing and storing for business and personnel use. In real world, there still many people out there who still have no idea what Deep Web is and I really think that people should be more educated to understand more about Deep Web.
The “Deep Web” or “Invisible Web” is a part of the World Wide Web, which people cannot see on the surface web, or the web pages that is not indexed by search engines. This is because when you use a search engine like Google or Yahoo, the information that you get back is referred to the surface web or visible web. However, there are millions of web pages that Google and Yahoo cannot find. “Google or Yahoo, for that search to be complete and up to date Information professional, who gather information from multiple sources and combined search environments have to use over-simplified general search engines that would have a problem obtaining insufficient indexes” (Lewandowski & Mayr, 2007). That’s called the “Deep Web”. For instance, the search in Google will not pick up all the information in the whole World Wide Web sites.
This is because the rest of the information is within specialized database or “Deep Web” and typical search tools won’t allow people to access them. The Deep Web is made up for valuable material that is important for companies, government, private users and hackers. The term “Deep Web” is usually associated with anonymous criminal activity that cannot be caught because it is in an fake world. However, the amount of the commerce in the Deep Web market is much larger than its surface web counterpart and there are no limits on what you can find on Deep Web.
The Deep Web can host anything from the most innocent content to the most ruthless and unthinkable things. Within the Deep Web are private intranets, as well as documents in formats that cannot be indexed (Marco, 2013). All the “Deep Web” sites require only special browser like “TOR Browser” to access the information in Deep Web. “It is suggested that when exploring this part of the web a user will need use a browser that will keep his/her location anonymous. The Onion Router, or Tor, is an example of such browser” (Tor: Overview) Basically everything that can’t be indexed on the surface web ends up in the deep web (Marco, 2013).
There are some article that against the idea of “people should be educated to understand more about Deep Web”. “It is clear that “The Hidden Wiki” tor website is now used to promote scams” (Be Anonymous On The Internet, 2014). According to that quote, it shows that the Deep Web search is dangerous for the user. It said that “The Hidden Wiki” is now used to promote scams. Hidden Wiki is the main search engine for any type of information, which isn’t indexed. And now this main search tool is full of scammers. Scam is dangerous for everyone who uses the Internet. Many people felled into the scammer’s tricks. For example, they buy things from the anonymous vendor from Deep Web, and they don’t receive the product in the end. Some people even got hacked their personnel information like credit card number, PayPal account, and social network account by using the sites from Deep Web.
From my point of view, I still agree that people should understand more about “Deep Web”. Because I think that this will give everyone only benefit for them. By understanding about Deep Web, I think people will be more aware of how to use it in case if they want to use it. For sure they will be more aware of all the scammers that try to take advantage from them. It could be really beneficial for business people who always store their important information online, and also for the people who work for the government like police. According from my research, I don’t really see much of the medias that educate people to understand what Deep Web is. I think there should be more medias for people to learn about it such as books, articles, and YouTube video or even movie. So, more people can easily find the information and understand about it easily.
In conclusion, most of the websites that we see nowadays are only a few percent of total World Wide Web, but Deep Web allows people to search for the hidden information, which they cannot find it on the surface web. But, Deep Web require special software like “TOR Browser” to access it. But there still people out there who don’t know what it is. According to that reason, I would recommend everyone to study a bit about it according to the advantage of it. So, everyone can be more aware of it.
Be Anonymous On The Internet (2007). Retrieved on September 27, 2014 from http://anonymous.livelyblog.com/2014/03/25/beware-of-scams-on-the-hidden-wiki/
Lewandowski, D & Mayr, P (2007) Exploring the Academic Invisible Web. Retrieved on September 26, 2014 from https://www.torproject.org/about/overview.html.en
Marco, B (2013) Deep Web and Cybercrime. Retrieved on September 26, 2014 from http://www.scribd.com/doc/204920789/wp-deepweb-and-cybercrime-pdf
Tor: Overview. Retrieved on September 27, 2014 from https://www.torproject.org/about/overview.html.en
Why Businesses Needs to Understand the Deep Web (2007). Retrieved on September 25, 2014 from http://www.mediabadger.com/2013/08/why-business-needs-to-understand-the-deep-web/