Deep Web

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What Does Deep Web Mean?

The deep web refers to any internet information or data that is inaccessible by a search engine and includes all web pages, websites, intranets, networks and online communities that are intentionally and/or unintentionally hidden, invisible or unreachable to search engine crawlers.

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The deep web is also known as the hidden web, undernet, deepnet or invisible web.

Techopedia Explains Deep Web

Coined by Mike Bergman, the term "deep web" relates to deep sea/ocean environments that are virtually invisible and inaccessible. Technically, the deep web is a series of interconnected systems that are not indexed by search engines and only directly accessible by their creators or individuals with very limited privileges.

The deep web contains data that is dynamically produced by an application, unlinked or standalone web pages/websites, non-HTML content and data that is privately held and classified as confidential. Some estimate the size of the deep web as many times greater than the visible or "surface web."

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Margaret Rouse
Technology Specialist
Margaret Rouse
Technology Specialist

Margaret is an award-winning writer and educator known for her ability to explain complex technical topics to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles in the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret’s idea of ​​a fun day is to help IT and business professionals to learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.