There are nearly 1.5 million[ people across the world searching for the dark web, and research has revealed which dark web browsers people are searching for the most.
A dark web page is purposely hidden (it doesn’t show up on search engines), where users can only gain access via certain browsers. It is estimated that 57 percent of dark web pages host illicit material.
Modern darknets use unique software to allow use of the distributed network. A report by Uswitch unveils that Tor is the most searched for dark web browser, with 910,730 searches for the platform in the past 12 months. In comparison, Subgraph OS is the most unknown browser, with just 3,080 people looking for it.
The Tor architecture provides two services – anonymous browsing, and hosting of anonymous information exchanges – through one piece of software, the so-called ‘Tor Browser’. The technology allows anybody to create a virtually untraceable server hosted within the Tor network, simply by adding two short lines of code to a short configuration file.
According to the review, the most searched-for dark web browsers:
| Browser | Global average monthly searches in the past 12 months |
| Tor | 910,730 |
| Waterfox | 52,220 |
| Whonix | 21,770 |
| Subgraph OS | 3,080 |
In terms of where the most search activity happens, people in America are searching for the dark web the most, with 382,800 searches online, followed by India (251,400) and the UK (78,400). These countries are followed by, in descending order:
- France
- Italy
- Indonesia
- Canada
- Philippines
- Brazil
- Turkey
Within the US, New Yorkers, in particular, are most interested in the dark web (10,220).
In terms of Europe and the British Isles, in the UK, Londoners come out top at searching for the dark web (8,490). Whereas, in the European Union, Parisians are looking for the dark web the most (5,450).
As people search, most users. often search using keywords both in English and their native language, as translated content online can be limited.
In relation to elicit activity, the concerns are Internet Service Providers (ISPs) nor law-enforcement agencies have visibility into the hosted service’s location, or the identity of its operator.
