What's the Difference Between the 'Surface Web' and the 'Deep Web'?
In 2024, the world wide web was made up of 149 zettabytes of data . That's 149 trillion gigabytes, or 149 billion terabytes—whichever helps you wrap your head around that gigantic number. Suffice it to say, the internet is a big place. It's so big, in fact, that you can't access all of it the same way. There are actually different tiers to the web, and depending on with tier a piece of content you're looking for is on, you may or may not be able to view it—even if you know where to find it. That's the crux of the difference between the "surface" web, and the "deep" web. These are two separate parts of the internet that are also part of the larger world wide web. While these two tiers are quite different, you've visited content on both of them before. In fact, you likely visited both surface web pages and deep web pages today, multiple times, without ever realizing it. What is the surface web? The surface web, also known as the visible we...
