Skip to Main Content

Beyond Google: The Invisible Web: Fast Facts

Some Fast Facts About the Invisible Web

2001:

  • Even the best search engines can access only about 16% of the available information on the World Wide Web. Therefore 84% of the information is excluded. That 84% has become known as the Invisible Web.
  •  Put another way, the size of the Invisible Web is 500 times larger than the Surface Web.
  • The Invisible Web contains nearly 550 billion individual documents as compared with the Surface Web's 1 billion.
  • The Invisible Web is the largest growing category of new information on the Web.
  •  95% of the Invisible Web is publicly accessible information.
  • More than half of the Invisible Web resides in topic specific databases.
    (Bergman 2001)

2003:

  • Surface Web: 167 terabytes
  • Deep Web: 91,850 terabytes
    (Lyman 2003)

2006:

2012:

  • 11+ billion static pages are hidden from the public as well as 450+ billion database-driven are completely invisible to Google
    (Paul Gil 2013)

2013:

  • "Trillions + pages of information" that current search engines cannot find
    (Zillman 2015)
  • "In fact, typical search engines like Google, Yahoo, or Bing actually access only a tiny fraction estimated at 0.03% of the internet.
    (Ultimate Guide to the Invisible Web 2013)

Updated September 2015

Library Media Resources Center
LaGuardia Community College
31-10 Thomson Avenue, room E101
Long Island City, NY 11101
Email the Library