The Deep Web, which is not visible to the average internet searcher, exists outside of Google's reach.

The rise of the Silk Road website brought the Dark Web into prominence. The Silk Road was an online black market that was openly accessible on Tor, a Dark Web network. Until its demise in October 2013, it was known mostly for assisting drug purchases on the Dark Web.

The Deep Web, which refers to all of the websites that cannot be found via search engines, is 400 to 550 times larger than the surface web. Most of it is benign—the material that circulates in email inboxes, corporate intranets, and searches on such sites as eBay and Amazon that are available online but inaccessible using search engines.

Since being sensationalized in film and media, the Dark Web has grown in popularity. Journalists sought to utilize Tor on the "Deep Web" to acquire phone records in order to investigate politicians and government activities, as well as big businesses around the world. Even popular shows have referred to Tor as the Deep Web rather than correctly identifying it as the DarkWeb. The knowledge gap between the general public and dark web users perfectly illustrates people's lack of understanding about these terms.

The Deep Web, on the other hand, consists of websites that are deliberately hidden and may need complicated encryption methods to access. The Dark Web has gained infamy as a hideout for drugs and illegal pornography, as well as a meeting place for contract assassins and drug dealers. It has also been dubbed the "Dark Web."

Dark web markets are a completely different avenue from the general, info-based, darkweb sites, because they are actively engaged in commerce, selling goods and services that may not be entirely legal in different jurisdictions. There are even websites like darkwebmarket.net which catalogue the best dark web markets online.

Because Dark Web research is inherently perplexing, many people have misconceptions about what it entails. While researchers are generating more data on well-known sites like Silk Road, the Dark Web is intended to promote anonymity, making it tough to assess the scope or nature of illicit activities.