Using deep and dark web links search engines for academic and painting scholarly research

You may have heard the term in passing before, the rumored-but-rarely-talked-about topic of the “deep web”. A web underneath the web, filled with petabytes of data and information that’s out of the reach of your standard Google, Bing, or Yahoo search bar. But what is the deep web exactly, and what purpose does it serve for the greater research community as a whole? 

Read the guide which was published on THE DARK WEB LINKS  to find out everything you need to know about the deep web, including what it means, where it lives, and how you can use it to your advantage.

The Deep Web: A Proper Definition

Google utilizes what’s known as a “spider-based crawler” to trawl the web for static webpage results, and then return them to you when you punch the right terms into the search bar. This only covers a very small portion of the actual information that’s available on the web.

Any results you get back from a basic Google search are from what’s known as the “Surface Web”. The Surface Web covers your basics: social media, news sites, shopping, blogs, etc.

Then there’s the Deep Web, which is not to be confused with the “Dark Web”, a portion of the internet most often associated with privacy protection connection services like TOR and online drug marketplaces like the now-defunct Silk Road.

The deep web contains a constantly updated torrent of raw, unchecked information, surging with complex technical terms and so many diagrams it’s enough to make Google’s Deep Dream AI blow a circuitboard. These are documents that keep records for things like census data, NASA mission data, patents, and academic paper databases.

It’s estimated that the whole of the entire surface web only amounts to about 20 terabytes of information, or 5 percent of the information available for open search. On the other hand, the deep web occupies about 7.5 petabytes of information, or just around 95 percent of the total.

How to Search the Deep Web

Knowing where to look when diving into the deep end of the web is the first, and probably most important step you should take before starting anything else. While the deep web is almost infinitely vast when it comes to the amount of information you can find, unlike what most people are used to when searching for something in Google, all of that data isn’t centralized in the same place.

This means for as many different subjects you can think of (finance, software, business, economics, academia, etc), there are an equal number of search engines designed to dive into the deep web archives of those particular subjects.

One issue that some researchers run into though is the problem of paywalls. There’s no getting around it; in order to run these websites/databases and keep the lights on, many of the sites mentioned below will keep their content hidden behind a paywall that can cost upwards of $50 to read a single document, or monthly subscription plans that get you access to all content for a flat fee.

If paywalls are a problem for you, one tool we recommend checking out is the Google Chrome browser extension Unpaywall. Unpaywall automatically scours the web for a free version of any content you’re trying to access that says it’s behind a paywall. You may not always get back a free result for every paper you search, however it’s still nice to the know the option is there if you need it in a pinch.

Below we’ve included a list of some of the services we think do the best job of cataloging all the information  you might need during your next research project, making special note to highlight those that make it easier to search through than most.

JSTOR – The first – and probably most obvious – addition to this list is the JSTOR database. Established in 1995, this treasure trove of research continues to be one of the first stops for any academic researcher on their way down the rabbit hole. Offering full-text searches for over 2,000 individual journals and 15,000+ books, JSTOR is a must-have for anyone who prefers a more “one-stop shop” approach during their data deep dives. JSTOR allows you access to up to three books for free, while a subscription to the JPASS service ($19.50 a month/$199 per year) will give you unlimited reading and 10 PDF downloads every 30 days (up to 120 per year). If you can’t afford that, many universities (more specifically, their professors) should have a subscription they’d be willing to let you use as long as you ask nicely enough!

Archive.org – A gigantic database of media that’s been entered into the public domain. Sound recordings, old videos, rare books, pretty much anything you might need to build your next great presentation at school, work, or both! Partnered with the Wayback Machine, which has over 280 billion webpages that have been indexed since nearly the inception of the internet itself.

Library of Congress – Digitized archives of everything that’s entered the Library of Congress. Over 200 years of historical information as well as up-to-date volumes

Osti.gov – Government research archives, complete with a history of all studies undertaken by the government. Your tax dollars paid for these, so why shouldn’t they belong to you? 100 percent searchable, and capable of returning results from within any document you’re trying to search for.

General

GPO’s Catalog of US Government Publications — Federal publications database.

The National Archives — National Archives’ research tools and online database. If there is anything you need to know about America’s history or the current state of the nation, this is the place.

HighWire Press —  Online catalog of the largest repository of free full-text and non-free text, peer-reviewed content, from over 1,000 different journals. It’s hit or miss as far as what’s behind a paywall and what isn’t. The only way to find out is to filter down your search terms to a point where you can see enough publications on both the paid and non-paid side of the aisle to decide whether or not you’ll need to pull out that wallet.

Encyclopedia Britannica – The original Google, now online with all the great pictures and text you still remember from the books!

FRED – Up-to-date financial data covering 470,000 time series from 85 different resources, this database is provided free of charge thanks to the helping hands over at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. FRED links out to a number of other equally impressive resources for economic data. It should be the primary resource for anyone doing research in the fields of finance and economic theory in the US.

Books

Google Books – The most obvious choice. Though the other listings below are fine for what they do, but none can quite measure up to Google’s book-scanning prowess. Some books will have partial previews, others fully available, and even more still won’t let you see anything at all. All text is digitized (and searchable), but whether or not you’ll be able to read your results depends entirely on the state of the copyright license on that particular piece of text.

Scribd – This may not exactly fill the role of your ultimate academic research database, however the monthly subscription service is still a good way to stay up to date on any new articles that might be running in your favorite magazines or be able to search through books that just hit the shelves. The documents section allows users to upload pretty much anything with few restrictions, so it’s become a repository for many textbooks and other academic content. 

Project Gutenberg — 53,000 free e-books available online, also part of the Archive.org searchable database.

The Online Books Page — A searchable database of more than 28,000 English books with the complete text available online.

Getty Research Institute – The Getty Research Institute library collections include over one million books, study photographs, periodicals and auction catalogs. There’s also a pretty deep collection of rare or unique materials that focus on art history and architecture.

Law and Politics

Law Library of Congress — Claims to be the largest collection of legal materials in the world, over 2 million volumes available.

THOMAS (Library of Congress) — Legislative information from the Library of Congress. All current and past bills that have ever been presented on the floor of the House of Representatives are archived here.

LexisNexis – Solid resource for any aspiring law student or practicing lawyer. Daily updated database of information, though it doesn’t come cheap. Prices for different services offered by LexisNexis will vary depending on the service and even what state you’re searching in, but expect to spend upwards of $125/month for services like Lexis Advance, which let you search through millions of court and legal documents submitted in actual cases from all around the United States. Your local library or university might have a subscription you can use.

Medical and Health

Science.gov — Gateway to science info provided by US government agencies. Searches an aggregated database of 200 million different publications and journals, best for anyone trying to do research on topics that are covered specifically under the “science” category.

PubMed  — The U.S. National Library of Medicine contains over 16 million citations from MEDLINE and other life science journals reaching all the way back to the 1950’s. One of the first, and still one of the best medical databases available online today.

Globalhealthfacts.org – Indexed database of world health information, searchable by disease type, country, conditions, symptoms, and more. Great resource complete with hundreds of infographics that can be used to explain the statistics of certain health problems on a broader scale.

New England Journal of Medicine – One of the leading medical journals with full text past issues available online. Be ready to pay for some content, but quite a bit is available for free as well.

Science and Academic

Geography and Geology

US Geologic Survey – Packed with as many maps and images as you can stomach, covering many different aspects of the the US geological topography.

US National Map by USGS – The source for current geospatial data from the USGS. All maps provided are both interactively available on the web, as well as in their downloadable formats.

USGS Real-Time Water Data — A map of the United States showing realtime water quality data of the country’s rivers and reservoirs.

USGS Earthquake Hazards Program — Maps of the world showing realtime earthquake data. Uses an interactive map that you can use to jump from location to location, fun for anyone who’s even got a passing level of interest in what’s really happening just under our feet.

Physics and Astronomy

The SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System – A physics and astronomy data engine for academic papers. Every paper you want to read must be individually requested, which can be a hassle, but still one of the best ways to get your hands on the raw data pouring out from telescopes and physics experiments from all around the globe.

Academic Index – Splits into two different types of searches: the main search which basically returns more fine-tuned Google results, and the other that searches deep web academic troves.

Engineering and Technology

IEEE Xplore Digital Library – Contains over 1.4 million documents from the Institute of Electronics and Electrical Engineers. Searchable database of up-to-date materials regarding almost anything and everything to do with electrical engineering and technology as a whole.

TechXtra — Free access to reports, e-materials, research, industry news, and even job listings in the math, science, and engineering fields.

Misc

Core — The world’s largest searchable database of open access research papers. Huge database of aggregated papers and research, all text-searchable. Should be your first stop for any early research that may not require as deep of a dive as somewhere else.

Arxiv – Cornell University repository. Access to 700,000+  technical papers on everything from quantitative biology to computer science. Appears to offer full text in several formats.

DeepDyve – DeepDyve is a commercial trawler that has aggregated quite literally millions of articles across thousands of scientific journals. If you’re searching for anything in the way of STEM projects, this is a great place to start (you’ll have to pay for the privilege, however).

Video Resources 

VideoLectures.net – Really strong set of video lectures from high authority sources, nearly 20,000 lectures to choose from and over 22,000 informational videos in total.

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Leisure Travels discovers travel as a sort of spiritual discipline and entertainment method

Travel is one of the most commonly listed interests of people, and it comes in all forms. Some people travel only when they need to visit relatives or friends, others travel on business, and some travel as a sort of spiritual discipline, to discover new things about the world and its cultures and to learn more about themselves in the crucible that is travel. Yet for some, none of these things is that important: to these people, travel is about fun and excitement, about rest and relaxation, and about whatever they want it to be about.

Identification

Leisure travels is travel agency via which the primary motivation is to take a vacation from everyday life. Leisure travels is often characterized by staying in nice hotels or resorts, relaxing on beaches or in a room, or going on guided tours and experiencing local tourist attractions. Most meals are eaten out when traveling for pleasure, and often more expensive modes of transportation, such as taxis, are used to get around. In some cases, leisure travels might be used to refer to any trip that lasts more than a week, regardless of the primary focus. Leisure travel is generally seen as the opposite of business travel.

Considerations

Leisure travel can be many things, but besides being a vacation, it doesn’t have to be any one of them. Although many leisure travelers spend more money than they would in their everyday life, others might choose to travel frugally. These backpacker leisure travelers might stay in hostels, cook their own meals and take public transit – as long as the main focus is on leisure, they are still leisure travelers. Similarly, a leisure traveler might make a business contact at a bar, acquire a new client, or work on a proposal for when she returns home. If the focus still is mainly on vacation, it is leisure travel.

Potential

It is becoming more common for people to take "working vacations," in which they split their time between work and play. Unlike a business trip, this sort of travel still incorporates many aspects of leisure travel. A number of tour agencies have begun offering "volunteer vacations," which combine aspects of the leisure travel lifestyle with volunteering one’s time to an organization in need. This type of traveling allows vacationers to enjoy the beauty of a new place while giving something back to it.

Rationale

There are many benefits to leisure travel. Stepping outside of a busy lifestyle can give people space to unwind and release their stress, returning to their jobs and everyday lives rejuvenated and refreshed. It also can give people the opportunity to experience parts of the world they have never seen before, enriching their understanding of life on the planet. Traveling can be an excellent way to meet new people and make new connections, and leisure travel gives people the space and time they need to really forge those bonds.

Costs

Even for those unwilling to embark on truly budget leisure travel, there are many ways to limit costs. Popular leisure travel destinations will often see a wide swing in prices among hotels, restaurants, travel, and activities, depending on the season. Locations in the Caribbean or Mediterranean, for example, might be twice as expensive during winter, as millions of visitors from Europe and the United States try to escape cold weather.

It’s not uncommon to hear travelers return from trips and say things like, “The place was great, but it was the people there who truly made it special.” And that’s because meeting the locals wherever you go is pretty much always a good idea. 

Fortunately, with all the new technology and startups around today, it’s easier than ever to get in with the locals and become immersed in the culture. The sharing economy — i.e., the collaborative economy in which everyone works with each other to share resources — is definitely on the rise. Bonus: Sharing your way through your trip also tends to be cheaper than staying in hotels and eating out at restaurants all the time.  

To help you plan a budget-friendly and culturally immersive trip, here are 10 new and exciting ways to get in and share with the locals. 

1. Look for an Airbnb whose host will be there with you.

This bed also comes with a spare set of sheets — and a killer host. (Photo: Jessica Festa/Jessie on a Journey)

Of course, you can rent out an entire place on Airbnb, all for you and you only (unless you bring friends). But to truly get in with the locals, it’s best to look for a room where the host will be there with you. For instance, I rent out the spare room in my New York City apartment on Airbnb, and love showing my guests — who hail from South Korea to Italy to Poland and beyond — around the city. I hang out with them on the couch, and we share stories from our travels and home countries. In this way, it ends up being a cultural experience for my guests and for me. So chances are, if you rent a room from a local through Airbnb, he or she may just give you the same local-knowledge treatment that I give my guests.

2. Tell your couch-surfing host that you want to hang out.

You’re probably familiar with Couchsurfing, the home-stay program that lets travelers sleep on local couches free of charge. Granted, it’s a bit less comfortable than other places because you usually don’t have your own bed, but the main point is that it allows you to stay, cook, and explore with locals.

Most of the time.

If you’re really interested in spending a lot of time with your host — i.e., you’re staying there not just to save money but also to use your stay as a main way to get to know the local culture, I recommend being honest with your host beforehand. While most Couchsurfing hosts love getting to know their guests, not all do, so let them know that this is what you’re looking for, then act accordingly. Uncomfortable with staying on a stranger’s couch? You can also use the forums in Couchsurfing to plan meet-ups with locals.  

3. Eat at a local’s home.

There’s nothing like a homemade meal when you’re traveling. (Photo: Jessica Festa/Jessie on a Journey)

By now, it’s a well-known fact that you can stay in other people’s homes when you travel. What’s not so well-known is the fact that you can eat meals in a local chef’s home, too.

First, there’s Eat With. Professional chefs can sign up to be an EatWith host, and that means that you can go to their homes, and they will prepare local fare for you and your fellow travelers. All you have to do is cruise the website and find a meal that appeals to you. Only about 4 percent of people who apply to be EatWith hosts are accepted, so you know you’ll be getting something delicious. Picture a hedonistic feast with a yogi in San Francisco, a traditional Shabbat dinner with a restaurant-owning couple in Jerusalem, or a homemade picnic with an organic chef at a Buenos Aires park.

Another great option: Feastly. This company has the same idea as EatWith, but it isn’t international — it’s available only in NYC, Washington, D.C., Chicago, and San Francisco so far. Still a steal if you’re stateside!  

4. Get rides from locals.

Lyft isn’t your average ride-sharing app or car service. Like Uber and Sidecar, Lyft is an app through which local drivers offer rides to those nearby for an economical price. While Uber is great, what makes Lyft different is that its drivers — who operate their own personal vehicles — are encouraged to bring their personalities to the ride, and riders are made to feel comfortable sitting in the front.  

What’s more, Lyft has a particularly interesting initiative called Lyft Creatives, whereby specific community drivers provide fun and atypical experiences through themes like Cookie Wars Lyft, Harry Potter Lyft, and the Lebowski Lyft. In the Cookie Wars Lyft, for example, entrepreneur Chris Biggs bakes two batches of fresh cookies every morning before he hits the road, and the riders choose their favorite flavor. In the Lebowski Lyft, riders are greeted by “The Dude” in the front, who does not offer them White Russians but does crank the CCR and give away some other Dude-like items. Clearly, Lyft is the type of car service where the friendship between the driver and the passenger doesn’t end with a ride. It’s not uncommon for community drivers and passengers to go out for coffee or see a show later on. 

Another option: Sidecar, which is a new site that lets you pay for shared rides. So far, it’s in Los Angeles, San Diego, Long Beach, Seattle, Chicago, Boston, Washington, D.C., and Charlotte. I’ve haven’t yet used Sidecar, but I do know that according to their rates, they’re cheaper than Uber and Lyft. 

If you’re not into being driven around, you can also rent a car from a local using Getaround.

5. Ask locals your most burning travel questions.

I first mentioned Ask a Stranger in my post on apps that make travel more social. Travelers can use this app to ask travel questions that are then sent out to knowledgeable locals, who earn points when they provide answers. Fifty credits is 99 cents, and it costs 10 cents to ask a question; users are given 100 free credits just for signing up. More points are given for quicker answers that receive positive feedback from askers. What’s particularly interesting is the private-chat feature, which allows travelers to make friends with locals and even meet up to explore together.

Another option is Localfu, a website where you can ask locals absolutely anything for $5 — where to hike, eat, enjoy a great wine list, see beautiful architecture … anything, really.

6. Take classes with locals.

You don’t have to be at home to take classes. In fact, it’s even more fun to take them while you’re traveling. One easy way to do so: Use Skillshare, which offers both online and offline classes with locals in cities around the United States, on topics like writing, film, photography, and cooking. It offers a way to explore a facet of local culture that you’re particularly interested in. I love taking classes wherever I go — I usually take at least one cooking class and one dance class. It’s a great way to explore culture in an active way and spend quality time with locals.

7. Go on tours with locals.

As someone who’s gone on excursions by big companies as well as tours with local guides, I’ve found that the big-company ones tend to have a more scripted feel. That’s not to say they’re bad, but when you’re looking to immerse yourself in local culture — really and truly immerse — tours created and led by locals are usually the better choice. One resource I like for this is ToursByLocals, which offers everything from cranberry harvesting at a Massachusetts farm to a safari day in South Africa.

Another option? Withlocals, an Asian company that lets you choose a local guide to lead you around Asia. I haven’t tried it yet, but it looks as though it has some great tours. It’s available in Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam. The site blends tours, dining experiences, and classes. Think boot-camp-style exercise classes in Bangkok parks, having a greasy-spoon breakfast in Singapore, and cycling in Nepal. Right now the site seems a bit food-centric; however, as it grows, I suspect it will provide more nonculinary experiences.

Other sharing sites offering local tours include Adventure, Adventure Local, and Vayable.

8. Get goods and gear from locals.

When you need gear, goods, or apparel, there’s no need to go to a store. You can get it from locals instead with Yerdle. Yerdle allows you to use credits to bid on and buy everything from acrylic paint to backpacks. You get 250 credits just for signing up, and you can earn credits by listing your own goods to rent. It’s like eBay, except that you pay nothing for your purchase, and shipping is through UPS.

It’s also free to pick up your stuff locally, which could be a great way to meet new friends in your area. I haven’t used it yet, but I can definitely picture myself using this app while traveling when I forget extra hiking pants or need a pair of gloves!

9. Have a local plan your entire trip.

It’s actually possible. Enter VoomaGo, which is sort of like local travel agent meets local tour guide. When you go to the site, you can browse local experiences offered by locals, listed under the “Experiences” tab. Some that looked interesting to me were the Day With a Local Farmer in Dominica, Sea Urchin Fishing & Snorkeling Off the Ionic Coast, and Lisbon to Cascals: Gastronomic Delights and Electric Bikes.

The VoomaPass is another interesting feature. You purchase the pass for $299 and then receive all-access travel planning from a local. As someone who worked as a travel agent for a short time — I quit because I felt it was more of a sales job where I was selling packages than planning cool trips — I think the chance to have a local organize your trip is pretty awesome. You’ll also hang with said local when you arrive and will get a prepaid phone to stay in contact with him or her — so you’ll always have on-the-ground support. 

10. Enjoy local treats. 

When you’re traveling to a new place, it’s easy to rely on Yelp to tell you about the hottest new restaurants. But what about those hole-in-the-wall places? Enter LocalEats, a website that’s focused on independently-owned restaurants in cities across the country. 

Another option: Check out Doughbies, a site where you can order freshly-baked pastries that are made in supersmall batches locally. It just started up in San Francisco, but they are growing quickly, and they may be in your city of choice soon. All you have to do is enter your zip code and let the website know if you’re interested in “pickup” or “delivery”; tasty treats will be delivered to your place in fewer than 20 minutes. Whichever option you choose, you know you’ll be eating some local goodness—and you can always chat up the local owners and chefs, too as it is said by the CEO of the Leisure Travels.

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