I first learned about the Invisible or Deep Web (I will be using the term "Invisible Web" from now on) while a student at the School of Library Archival and Information Studies at The University of British Columbia in my LIBR 500: Foundations in Information Technology class with Dr. Mary Sue Stephenson.

    Up till that point, the people in my cohort had discussed on our online discussion board of how we felt technology was beginning to control our lives.  One issue which I was particularly interested in was whether or not an individual was really afforded a sense of privacy with everything being digitalized and available on the Web.  For example, if I wanted to put up photos of what I had for dinner last night, or those from a recent vacation, would I be able to do so selectively so that it wasn't literally available to the whole world, but only to a few select individuals?

    It wasn't until a few weeks after the start of the semester that one of our module topics discussed the presence of the Invisible Web.  It was touted as a place that search engines like Google and Yahoo could not access, and because of that, it piqued my interest and made me want to learn more.  It seemed to be the online equivalent of Michael Caine's house in Children of Men, a hidden refuge safe from the anarchy of the outside world.

    Yet as I have recently learned through conducting research for this Web site, more and more of the Invisible Web is being mapped out and made accessible to users through databases and indexes like Deep Peep and the Librarians' Internet Index.  And while to some this may sound like the technological equivalent of the barbarians beating at the gate, or the birth of an Orwellian nightmare, in reality having access to Invisible Web content will actually benefit the majority of the Internet's users.

    However, good things take time, like anything else.  According to "Google's Chief of Technology Officer, Craig Silverstein, he estimate[s] that it may take as long as fifty years before Google has the ability to index all Invisible Web content" (Sherman and Price 290).

    Right now you may be asking yourself, "What does this all mean for me?  How will the Invisible Web make my life easier?  And really, what do you mean by Invisible Web anyway?"

    Read on to find the answer.