Instead, you would have to go to the public library’s website and use a search bar inside the website to locate this data on the library’s servers. (Search engines crawl the internet by visiting one web page, then the links on that page, and then the links on subsequent pages.) The reason search engines can’t return this data to you is because there are no links. That level of information would be located in the deep web. Regular browsers search the so-called “surface web,” but that’s where the search stops.įor instance, if you wanted to search a public library catalog to find a book, you couldn’t type the title into your browser’s search bar and expect Google to return a meaningful result for your library. They use links to rank search results according to things like relevancy, inbound links, and keywords. Search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo are able to search and index websites because of links. The deep web is just like it sounds - below the surface and not completely dark.

Tor browser websites forum