Internet Layers: Surface Web and Deep Web

The Internet Layers

• The internet is divided into three main layers: Surface Web, Deep Web, and Dark Web.

Surface Web

• The Surface Web is the normal, basic level of the internet and the primary entry point for most users.
• It includes websites filled with data that are indexed by search engines.
• Standard normal websites that users access daily reside here.
• However, the Surface Web does not contain much information, which is instead contained deeper inside the internet.

Deep Web

• The Deep Web contains most of the internet's data and is not a secret place.
• It is accessible by knowing the URL, but most of the information here is related to personal information, such as medical and financial records.
• Most of these sites require access control, and search engines do not index this information.
• The Deep Web contains 400-500 times more information and has a 15% larger visit capacity than the Surface Web.
• Deep Web pages are generated dynamically from a database and are difficult for standard crawler-based search engines to index.
• Data in the Deep Web cannot be accessed directly through hyperlinks, but most useful web data is saved in the Deep Web.
• The Deep Web is also called the hidden Web or invisible Web.

Information Extraction from Deep Web

• The information extraction task can be classified into three categories:
  • Record-level: discovers record boundaries and divides them into separate attributes.
  • Page-level: extracts all data embedded in one Web page.
  • Site-level: populates a database from pages of a Web site.

Accessing Deep Web

• The Deep Web can be accessed using special browsers like TOR (The Onion Router).
• These browsers can find information not available through surface browsers, such as Hidden WIKI and Bitcoins.

Internet Levels

• Level S: ClearNet, includes social networks, search engines, wiki, e-mail services, and common internet content.
• Level 1: Surface Web, includes closed social networks, e-commerce sites, blogs, university databases, hosting services, and forums.
• Level 2: Bergie Web, includes web archives, torrents, streaming services, restricted access content, robots.txt, and anti-virus databases.
• Level 3: Deep Web, includes hacking guides, spambots, virtual reality, computer security, and advanced artificial intelligence.
• Level 4: Dark Web, includes hacking groups, hidden wiki, most .onion sites, drug dealers, and banned media.
• Level 4B: Private Web, includes FPI mid-classified, supercomputing, closed systems, and geometric algorithms researches.
• Level 5: Marianas Web, also called the final boss of the web, and is considered the most dangerous level.