It’s easier than you think.

By Patricia Jordan

The Deep Web or hidden web is estimated to be 500 times larger than the surface web. Its size is astonishing when one considers that Google’s search engines scan eight billion pages. The Deep Web contains information that is located within databases on dynamically generated websites. Most of this untapped information is in the form of medical research, public records and other types of documents that are stored in databases and are not available on static web pages.

This enormous resource is not retrieved by traditional search engines like Yahoo! and Google, which utilize crawler programs to gather information online. While this approach works for pages on the surface web, these programs are often unable to penetrate databases that are designed to respond to specific typed queries. Therefore, those pages do not exist until they are created dynamically from a specific search.

There are many websites that provide resources and information on searching the Deep Web. Here are a few websites that will assist you to search the Deep Web.

• ArchivesCanada.ca is a gateway to archival resources found in more than 800 repositories across Canada.
• CollectionsCanada.gc.ca is an online resource containing the collections and services of Library and Archives Canada.
• CompletePlanet.com provides access to more than 70,000 searchable databases and specialty search engines.
• HeinOnline.org provides content that spans multiple library collections with more than 50 million pages of research material available to subscribers in more than 150 countries.
• Legaltree.ca publishes resources and literature that are contributed by lawyers in the Canadian legal community.
• LibrarySpot.com contains a collection of databases, online libraries, references and other resources.
• WorldCat.org connects to the collections and services of more than 10,000 libraries.
• The World Digital Library (wdl.org/en) provides free access in multilingual format to significant materials from countries and cultures worldwide.

DID YOU KNOW?
Source: profusion.com (Komalh, February 2, 2011)

• 107 trillion emails were sent in 2010.
• There are 1.88 billion email users worldwide.
• 89.1 per cent of email is spam.
• There are 2.9 billion email accounts worldwide.
• There were 1.97 billion Internet users worldwide as of June 2010.
• There are 152 million blogs on the Internet.
• 25 billion tweets were sent on Twitter in 2010.
• 600 million people were on Facebook as of December 2010.
• 20 million Facebook apps are installed each day.

MORE INTERNET FACTS

• 350 million Internet-enabled television sets are expected to be sold worldwide by 2015. (Parks Associates, January 2011)
• Worldwide tablet sales are predicted to grow by more than 400 per cent over a two-year period, reaching 81.3 million units in 2012. (eMarketer, December 2010)
• Worldwide Internet traffic grew 62 per cent in 2010. Eastern Europe and India/South Asia experienced the fastest year on year growth where average traffic growth exceeded 100 per cent. (Telegeography, October 2010)
• Global advertising spent in measured media is expected to exceed $500 billion in 2011. Online ad spend is expected to hit $82 billion. (GroupM, December 2010)

This article was published in the April 2011 issue of BarTalk. © 2011 The Canadian Bar Association. All rights reserved.