The rabbit hole that is the Internet goes much deeper than most people know. In fact, the World Wide Web as we know it represents just 4% of networked web pages — the remaining 96% of pages make up what many refer to as the “Invisible Internet,” “Invisible Web” or “Deep Web.” This massive subsection of the Internet is 500 times bigger than the visible Web and is not indexed by search engines like Google.
Finding sites on this invisible network of webpages isn’t easy as a result, so it’s often home to nefarious services like “Silk Road.” There’s plenty more to the Deep Web than that, however, and an infographic posted recently by WhoIsHostingThis — the same group that recently taught us how to disappear online — does a good job of detailing the basics, including how to access this mysterious network of hidden sites with a special Web browser like Tor.
The full infographic follows below.
