What is a deep web search engine?
A deep web search engine is a specialized search engine that can find information not available on Google, Bing or other similar sites. The “deep web” is Internet content that is unlinked, password-protected, dynamically-generated, or otherwise hidden from the web crawlers of mainstream search engines. This can include databases, intranets, web archives, personal information, scientific articles, movies and much more.
Most deep web search engines have access to such information because they “own” it in the first place and directly store it in their own servers.
Google and other similar sites may not show the information from deep web search engines for a variety of reasons:
- Copyright laws prevent them.
- Their search algorithm isn’t designed to show such information.
- They don’t have access to the information.
It’s important to note that the deep web is different from the dark web, which is a portion of the internet intentionally hidden and only accessible via special software (such as Tor), and often associated with illegal activities.
Deep web search engines for books, movies, audiobooks
Archive.org
Archive.org can best be described as a gigantic free library that contains tens of millions of books, videos, songs and more which can anyone can borrow for free (for a little while). Most of the information on archive.org is not indexed by Google or other search engines, meaning archive.org is basically the only “search engine” that has access to such a gigantic amount of information.
The Wayback Machine
The Wayback Machine allows users to view archived versions of web pages across time, something not available via conventional search engines. It serves as a sort of time machine, enabling you to see what a website looked like in the past, even if the content has since been removed or changed.
Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg offers over 60,000 free eBooks, including many classic works that are in the public domain. While you can find books through Google, Project Gutenberg provides access to many older books that may not be readily accessible or free elsewhere, and it allows for download in a variety of digital formats.
LibriVox
LibriVox is a library of free public domain audiobooks, read by volunteers from around the world. Users can find audiobooks for many classic works that may not be available in audio form or for free on other platforms.
The Pirate Bay
The Pirate Bay is a website that provides torrent files and magnet links for peer-to-peer file sharing. It hosts a vast amount of content, including movies, music, games, and software, much of which is copyrighted and not legally available for free elsewhere.
PublicDomainMovie.net
This site offers a collection of thousands of mostly old films from the 1940’s and older that have entered the public domain, meaning they are free to watch and distribute without violating copyright. While you can search for public domain movies on Google, this site has a curated and organized collection that simplifies discovery.
OpenLibrary
Open Library is an initiative of the Internet Archive, aiming to create “one web page for every book ever published”. It provides free access to a vast number of books in various formats, including some that are otherwise hard to find, and allows users to contribute by adding new catalog entries and correcting existing ones.
Open Culture
Open Culture is a website that provides free resources and courses from top universities, as well as free movies, books, and more. It’s a comprehensive platform to find high-quality cultural and educational content that may not be easily found through traditional search engines.
Bookfinder.com and WorldCat.org
Both of Bookfinder.com and WorldCat.org are specialized search engines for books and can help you find a book based on anything you can remember. Lines, plot points, character names, publishing date, etc.
Bookfinder is more focused on searching for the best prices for new and used books, including ones that are out of print. WorldCat, on the other hand, is a global library catalog that can show you the nearest libraries holding a specific book you’re interested in, making them both invaluable for serious readers and researchers.
IMDb Advanced Title Search + reelgood.com
IMDb Advanced Title Search allows users to filter through IMDb’s gigantic list of films and TV series using criteria like specific actors, directors, genres, languages, length, number of votes etc.
Reelgood complements this by providing an easy way to find out which streaming service hosts a particular movie or TV show, something that a regular search engine might struggle to provide at a glance and with 100% accuracy.
Visit IMDb Advanced Title Search
Deep web search engines for music
Radio Garden
Radio Garden allows users to listen to thousands of live radio stations worldwide by rotating the globe. Unlike general search engines, this interactive platform makes it easy to explore radio content from various countries and cultures in real-time.
Forgotify
Forgotify exclusively plays songs from Spotify that nobody has ever listened to. This unique discovery feature isn’t available through standard music or search platforms, offering a chance to explore overlooked music.
Every Noise at Once
Every Noise at Once is an interactive map of music genres, providing examples of each. Unlike conventional search engines, it visualizes the musical style space and helps users discover new types of music based on their genre preferences.
Deep web search engines for scientific articles
Sci–Hub
Sci-Hub is a controversial online repository that contains over 85 million scholarly and research articles, which it delivers to users for free. Sci-Hub bypasses publisher paywalls, providing free, unrestricted access to research articles that are normally restricted because of publishing and copyright law, and hence not directly available via search engines.
Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) is a platform that provides access to high-quality, peer-reviewed open access journals across numerous disciplines. This specific, organized collection of open access resources isn’t easily found using conventional search methods.
Visit Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
Khan Academy
Khan Academy is an educational resource that offers instructional videos, practice exercises, and a personalized learning dashboard. It provides in-depth, easy-to-understand explanations of many subjects from kindergarten through early college levels. This type of structured, comprehensive educational content is not easily discoverable through a typical search engine query.
LibraryGenesis
Library Genesis (LibGen) is a digital library with a massive repository of books, textbooks, scientific articles, and other academic and general-interest written works. Many of these are not freely accessible elsewhere due to paywalls or copyright laws. As it so happens, LibGen is commonly DMCA’d and taken down for copyright infringement, but always goes back online through various mirror sites.
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy is a comprehensive resource for articles and information on a wide range of topics in philosophy. Each entry is written and maintained by an expert in the field. This level of detail and academic rigor is not easily found on blogs or other websites on the Internet.
Visit Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Deep Web search engines for video games
SteamDB
This website provides comprehensive statistics and detailed information about games and apps on the Steam gaming platform. It offers insights such as historical pricing, player counts, user ratings, and regional availability, which are difficult to obtain in one place through regular search engines.
Classic Reload
Classic Reload is a repository of old-school games that can be played directly in the browser. While you can search for old games on Google, this site has a curated and organized collection that simplifies discovery and provides the unique capability to play these games online.
OldGamesDownload
Old Games Download is a site dedicated to preserving and providing access to vintage and discontinued games. These games, which are not readily available or playable on modern systems, can be downloaded and enjoyed through emulators.
Deep web search engines for cartoons and animations
WCOFun
WCOFun (WCO means WatchCartoonsOnline) is a site that offers free streaming for thousands of cartoons and anime, both TV series and films. The site shouldn’t technically be legal because of how many copyright laws it breaks, but it always seems to find a way to come back from the dead whenever it is closed.
Even though vanilla ADS-B exchange doesn’t show where the aircraft came from and is going to, this chrome extension built for adsbexchange (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/adsb-add-on/kgionpkdifedafldjflcbeojkencnaja ) does show that.
TheIndex.moe
TheIndex.moe shows nearly every anime/manga website, torrent and streamable URL on the internet and also shows if they are active, have ads, if they are safe to use, viewing order, and related content. With this you will never need to ask yourself, “where am I going to watch/download this anime or read this manga?”
Deep web search engines for documentaries & old newspapers
TopDocumentaryFilms.com
Top Documentary Films hosts a vast collection of documentaries that are freely available to watch online. It categorizes them in a user-friendly way that helps discovery of documentaries on specific topics, which can be more challenging (or downright impossible) to find with typical search engines.
Full Documentary
Full Documentary provides free access to a wide variety of documentaries across many subjects. These documentaries are curated and organized in a way that makes it easier for users to discover and watch them compared to general search engines.
Elephind
Elephind is a search engine that looks through historical newspaper archives. It allows you to search across numerous different online newspaper archives simultaneously, making it easier to find old news articles that might be scattered across various sources.
Deep web search engines for discussion boards, forums and groups
Google with the Discussions button
Google once used to offer a “Discussions” tab to filter its search results, similar which worked in a similar way to the current Images, News etc.
For whatever reason however, Google decided to remove this filter. Fortunately, you can get it back with a Chrome plugin called Discussions Button for Google.
This plugin is very useful if you’ve lost faith in Google’s standard search results and instead prefer to see answers and solutions found on obscure forums, discussion boards, subreddits etc.
Usenet
Usenet can best be described as a “parallel Internet”, but with much limited features. Unlike the Internet however, Usenet is very unregulated and contains content not easily found on the Internet. Usenet provides a platform for discussions and sharing of files, including binaries for images, music, movies, and software. While its usage has declined, it still hosts content that might not be readily available through regular web searches.
However, becoming a Usenet user is relatively complicated since it is not a website, but rather a different sort of Internet. This guide can tell you how to start navigating Usenet.
Deep web search engines for disasters, emergencies & flight paths
RSOE–EDIS
The Emergency and Disaster Information Service (EDIS) is an international monitoring service that provides real-time alerts and updates on natural disasters, severe weather events, epidemics, and other emergencies worldwide. Search engines typically use EDIS whenever they announce a few major disasters such as hurricanes or tornadoes, but the site itself contains every single disaster and emergency from across the globe.
ADS-B Exchange
ADS-B Exchange is a network that provides real-time information about flight paths and positions of aircraft around the world. Unlike other flight tracking sites, it does not filter data or limit the display, providing a more comprehensive view of air traffic. It doesn’t block military aircraft, random planes, and information about aircraft unlike Flightradar24 and it was created for aviation enthusiasts to track aircraft and not for the money. Even though vanilla ADS-B exchange doesn’t show where the aircraft came from and is going to, this chrome extension built for ADS-B Exchange (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/adsb-add-on/kgionpkdifedafldjflcbeojkencnaja ) does show that.
Deep web search engines for datasets
Google Datasearch Tool
While this is a Google product, it’s specifically designed for finding datasets published across the web in a way the general search engine is not. This makes it much easier for researchers and data scientists to find the data they need for their work.
ImportYeti
ImportYeti provides unique and detailed insights into U.S. import data. It helps users find suppliers, understand a company’s supply chain, see what companies are bringing into the U.S., and more, data that is not readily available via regular search.
Academic Torrents
Academic Torrents is a free platform where researchers and regular internet users can share and access large datasets. It’s a beneficial resource for academic and scientific research as it enables access to large-scale datasets that are not typically indexed or accessible through standard search engines.
Deep web search engines for personal information
Spokeo
Spokeo is a people search engine that provides access to information about individuals, including contact details, family relations, social media profiles, and more. To put it bluntly, Spokeo is commonly used to conduct background checks or just find out sensitive personal information about a certain person.
Have I Been Pwned
Have I Been Pwned is a site that allows users to check if their personal data has been compromised in data breaches. This specific, focused security tool is not something you can find through a conventional search engine.
OpenPaymentsData.cms.gov
This website is a national transparency program from the US government that collects information about financial relationships between the health care industry (like drug and device companies) and doctors and hospitals.
This kind of information is extremely useful if you want to know if your doctor is under a conflict of interest, where they recommend you use certain medications simply because pharma companies paid them to do so.
Visit OpenPaymentsData.cms.gov
AnnualCreditReport.com
This is the only authorized website for free credit reports in the U.S. Regular search engines can lead you to numerous sites offering credit reports, but this is the only one mandated by federal law, which provides users with a free annual credit report from each of the three nationwide credit reporting companies.
Deep web search engines for public domain images, sketches, illustrations
Creative Commons Search
This platform allows users to search for free content in the public domain and under Creative Commons licenses from various sources. It simplifies finding images, music, text, and other content that can be freely used and modified. Normal search engines makes this difficult, since they usually mix up free content with copyrighted one, with a healthy sprinkle of annoying ads on top.
Storyset.com and Undraw.co
Both Storyset.com and Undraw.co provide free, customizable illustrations that can be used in digital projects. Unlike a regular search engine, these platforms specifically offer free high-quality, customizable vector illustrations, ensuring a level of uniformity and visual appeal that may not be available with a more general image search.
Non-categorized Deep web search engines
Mix
Mix is a content curation platform where users can discover, share, and save interesting content from across the web such as images, text, GIF’s, video etc. Unlike a typical search engine, Mix offers a personalized discovery experience, driven by the interests of the user and the Mix community.
The Useless Web
The Useless Webis a fun site that directs users to a variety of strange, amusing, and yes, largely “useless” websites. This kind of random, entertaining content is not something that is easily discoverable through regular search engine queries.
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