If you spend a lot of time online, you have a rough idea of ​​how big the internet is. For example, even a simple search like casino online will return thousands of results. It is thought that there are approximately 1.88 billion websites on the internet, and if you were to visit each of them and spend just one second, you would have to spend 21,759 days, or 59 years, of your life. Well, what would you think if we told you that these websites actually represent a very small part of the internet? Did you know that there are more sites on the Dark Web? Deep Web, Darknet, Dark Web – we’re sure you’ve heard these terms before, but do you know what they really mean? You can find out by reading this article.

Surface Web

This is the name of the network of websites indexed by search engines. In other words, this is the first thing that comes to mind when someone says “Internet.” Any site that you can visit using any browser and is displayed in the results of search engines such as Google is part of the surface web. Surface web only makes up 4% of the total World Wide Web content. (Some sources claim it’s 5%, it’s impossible to give an exact number.) So about 95% of the internet consists of content that you can’t reach or even know existed – the surface web is only a tiny part of it.

Darknet

This is the part of the internet that is not indexed by search engines. It is not possible to reach the sites on this network with ordinary browsers. To access the Darknet, it is necessary to use special browsers and tools such as TOR and VPN. These tools ensure that users’ identities remain anonymous. Unlike Surface Web, sites on the Darknet do not record their visitors’ IP addresses and are not concerned with identifying them. Being anonymous is the most important feature of this network; therefore, you need to know the exact address to reach most sites.

However, contrary to popular belief, the Dark Net is not a criminal network. It is possible to find chat rooms, game servers, and incredible libraries on the Darknet. You just have to hide your identity using special tools to access these resources and know what to find and where. It is possible to use the Darknet only by protecting your privacy without getting involved in any illegal work, and even some resources can be accessed only in this way.

Dark Web

This is the part of the Darknet used for illegal work. The general rules for Darknet apply here as well: To access Dark Web resources, you must hide your identity using special browsers and tools. However, Dark Web sites are used for illegal activities such as drug sales, assassinations, and gun sales. The thing that is the subject of movies and often confused with the Deep Web or Darknet is actually the Dark Web.

Deep Web

Although its name sounds like something sinister, the Deep Web is actually just a section of the internet that is not indexed by search engines. However, unlike Dark Net, it is actually not “hidden.” Dark Net is not indexed by search engines, and it can be visited only using special browsers. The Deep Web, on the other hand, does not require such a thing, it can be viewed using ordinary browsers, but search engines still do not index them. It’s because Deep Web content consists, for example, of photos that you upload to your own cloud server or files from office computers. Only certain people can access such resources, and therefore, they are not considered a direct part of the Surface Web. However, if you are one of those specific people, you can still access Deep Web content using any browser.

The Deep Web is very, very big. For example, the Surface Web contains approximately one billion documents and 20 TB of data. Theoretically, it is possible to fit the entire surface web onto 10 HDDs of 2 TB each. (Videos and image files are not included in this calculation: Only text-based files are taken into account.) On the other hand, there are approximately 600 billion documents and 7,500 TB of data on the Deep Web. To sum it up: 

• Deep Web is the part of the internet that is not indexed by search engines. 
• Darknet is the part of the internet that is not indexed by search engines and can be accessed only with special tools and browsers. 
• Dark Web is the part of the Dark Net that is used for illegal activities. 

Ordinary users are unaware of the existence of resources other than the Surface Web and think that the entire Internet consists of it. Yet the World Wide Web is enormous, and the Surface Web is a very, very small part of it. Unless you’re trying to find a resource you’re looking for but can’t find it on the Surface Web, there’s no real reason to be interested in the Darknet. In any case, you should stay away from the Dark Web.