Does the "deep web" really exist?

[Lysander]

Wiki article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Web

as title, really. As there really tons and tons of 'hidden' sites out there which can't be indexed by normal search engines?

The argument is that these can only be accessed through Tor - but Tor isn't 100% anonymous anyway.

 

[Lysander]

Really I was looking for serious responses along the lines of what xojang was talking about. I don't think there's anything mysterious or sinister about this, I'm just looking for facts.

I'll wait to see what else turns up in this thread.

Here's something which sheds more light [or dark] onto it:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/nov/26/dark-side-internet-freenet

 

[Lysander]

forum.bodybuilding.com/

The misc section specifically.

This is the one, isn't it.

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=129624503

This is all about .onion sites. You can only access those with Tor? Or am I wrong in that?

 

[Lysander]

I used to run Tor years ago, I'll put it back and fish around.

 

[Lysander]

Well, the Hidden Wiki is there. Doesn't exist through a normal browser but with Tor enabled it does.

I don't really want to mess around too much beyond that, for obvious reasons.

 

[Lysander]

This is interesting:

Alternative Internet

* Netsukuku - A project that aimed to build a global P2P online network completely independent from the Internet using Wi-Fi. On hiatus since 2009.
* Many other wireless communities building mesh networks as an alternative to the Internet, e.g. Freifunk, Funkfeuer, Guifi and many more around the globe

 

[Lysander]

The problem is that a lot of people use Hidden Wiki as their gateway into the deep web - but most people are too scared to then follow the links presented there. A lot of it is illegal material/discussions - and links to communities. I wouldn't be surprised if Hidden Wiki itself was somehow controlled by the authorities and decoyed to deter people from venturing further and getting so they get the feeling that they've filled their deep web fix. After all, it shouldn't be as easy as running Tor and pasting in the URL.

A lot of the really interesting stuff is most likely on Usenet anyway.