Although getting to the dark web is not particularly difficult, navigating around will cause more problems than on the regular Internet. First of all, pages on the dark web do not have a classic address, such as, for example, www.facebook.com . The fact is that when using Tor, the address of individual pages is a random string with an ending.onion, for example, http://secrdrop5wyphb5x.onion /. Secondly, the very idea of the Dark Web protecting our privacy and somehow hiding its contents means that the addresses of the pages available here can be found mainly in various manually edited directories and obtained from other people browsing the dark web. However, it is always necessary to be extremely careful about this method of obtaining site addresses. Sometimes you can run into scammers, because in the Dark Web — this is a common thing.
The most famous catalog of pages of the dark side of the World Wide Web, of course, is The Hidden Wiki — the “bad” younger brother of Wikipedia. This is a resource containing links to many other pages and directories that will take you even deeper into the dark corners of the web. Unfortunately, the fact that The Hidden Wiki is the most famous does not automatically mean that it is the best source of links in the Dark Web. There you can find links to illegal and dangerous sites or sites that just don’t work anymore.
Particular attention should be paid to search services operating in the Dark Web.
For example, in the same Tor Browser, DuckDuckGo is installed by default by the search service. Usually search services will help you too, although do not expect that the search results will be as extensive as in the case of Google. Pages on the dark web are not indexed in the classic way, but if you want to use this method of searching on the dark web, try using one of these portals:
Tor Search
Tor Find
TORCH
Grams
DuckDuckGo
Remember that these portals can only be opened in the Dark Web, since their addresses are modified and have an ending.onion. No familiar browser, such as Google Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Edge or Opera, will open it.
It is also worth mentioning other interesting sites that should be added to favorites when browsing while on the Dark Web. They will help you to walk more freely on the dark side of the Internet and find the information you need. I will write some sites that are worth paying attention to. I’ll make a reservation right away that this is my personal choice. Perhaps you have your own similar list, which you will share in the comments. Here are the sites I use:
Daniel is a list of several thousand pages on the Dark Web, divided into categories and having a built—in tool showing whether this site is active at all
ProPublica is a portal dedicated to topics related to investigative journalism, various insiders, and sometimes very useful information about politics, economics, technology, AI, etc.
SecureDrop is a very interesting and worthy tool for sharing files and a list of information pages available on dark networks. One significant drawback of this resource is that, although rare, file leaks sometimes occur. The Dark Web, suddenly, is also full of people who are dishonest.