For most of us, the web is limited to 10-20 or maybe 50 websites. Most of this limited collection is in the form of Google sites and services. In fact, the Internet is huge, and it has about one billion websites on servers worldwide.
Even with those billion websites, the web is not complete. Many believe that the World Wide Web that we see is only the tip of an iceberg. The two words Darknet and Deep Web, in some sense, justify the presence of this hidden web of which most people are unaware. And people who know about Darknet often confuse it with the deep web. Whereas, the two are completely different.
What is the Deep web?
Over the centuries, as technology advanced, humans built machines capable of diving into the depths of the oceans. This is how we were able to discover the remains of the RMS Titanic. Search engine crawler finders carry out the work done by submarines. They dive into the Internet and pay attention to whatever they find.
We may find the Titanic, but there is much to discover in the unfathomable oceans. Similar is the case with search engine crawlers, they have not identified different parts of the World Wide Web and we call it the Deep Web.
For example, search engines cannot access servers and websites hosting data about some government-led secret alien missions. But the deeper the web, the deeper it seems, is not mysterious. A private network, tagged as the deep web, maybe right next to your home. It is only the Internet that is not within the reach of a standard search engine crawler. For example, the network is maintained by some paid streaming service. It is a type of deep web or hidden web. Obviously, search engines cannot opt for a monthly subscription to index a list of such websites.
What is Darknet?
Unlike the deep web, Darknet is better known to people. It is an encrypted network that is built on top of the existing Internet and requires specific software or tools to access the Darknet. It is possible, traditional protocols used on the Internet may not work on Darknet.
Darknet provides anonymity to users. One such darknet is Tor or The Onion Router. You need the Tor browser to enter Tor’s network.
Tor can be used to visit Internet websites daily, but it also has many hidden websites and services, which cannot be accessed on the regular Internet. Tor used his protocol known as the Tor Hidden Service Protocol. And websites limited to the Tor network have a special .onion address. Because of this, Tor’s darknet is also known as Onionland.
The Friend-to-Friend (F2F) network is another type of darknet. In this case, two acquaintances communicate directly with each other over the Internet. They may want to share some files over a P2P connection. Networks that are not accessible by others can be encrypted or password protected. So, only the people concerned have access.
What is the dark web?
Deep web dark web
There is one more thing you want to know about the dark web. You can think of the Dark Web as a subset of the Deep Web. You need to understand the difference between the deep web and darknet, and the fact that the internet and the WWW (World Wide Web) are not the same things.
Darknet is a network, and the deep web is part of the World Wide Web that is beyond the reach of search engines. So, we can understand the Dark Web as a World Wide Web like Darknets like Tor, Freight, etc., i.e. the services and websites that run on Darknet are Dark Web.
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