Definition: deep Web

(1) See deep link.

(2) Sometimes, the "dark" Web is erroneously used to mean the deep Web (definition #3 below). See Dark Web.

(3) The deep Web is private content on the Web that is not found on a Google or Bing search because the website has been coded to prevent the search engines from indexing it. For example, a company's internal employee website, also called an "intranet," is part of the deep Web. The total deep Web content is considerably larger than the public Web ("surface Web").

Also known as the "invisible Web" and "hidden Web," viewing such content is accomplished by having the appropriate authorization. Deep Web content often resides within databases on the site's servers and not within the actual Web pages. However, search tools do exist that can query deep Web content. See LexiBot.

The Deep Web Is Much Larger

There is a lot more data contained in the deep Web than what is visible on the public Web.