4.1.6 Invisible Web

The invisible Web is in opposition to the visible web what commercial search engines cannot find.

Also called Deep Web the invisible Web are "Text pages, files, or other high-quality authoritative information available via the Web that general-purpose search engines cannot, due to technical limitations, or will not, due to deliberate choice, add to their indices of Web pages". (Sherman, C./Price, G. (2001). The invisible web. p.57)

The invisible web is then containing all contents which are in a certain way protected and then for most of all very important material. (Cf. Hock, R/Notess, G. R. (2007). The extreme searcher’s Internet handbook. P.21) Here we are mostly referring to databases or special content protected by a login and password.

According to some sources the invisible Web is 400 to 550 times bigger (Pedley, P. (March 2002). Why you can’ afford to ignore the Invisible Web. Business Information Review.) than the Internet as we know it, and it is the fastest growing category of new information on the Internet.

The risk of non considering the invisible web and then the independent databases is of course to not get valuable information. It is foolish to think that one can find everything with the visible Web.

Company contents and reports which are public are made on purpose (Cf. Shapiro, C./Varian, R.H. (1999). Information Rules: A strategic guide to the Network Economy.) (obsolete, incomplete information…).

They are for sure less valuable that the ones protected by a password which require registration fees.

The Invisible Web has to be seriously considered when looking for reliable and valuable information.