The general recommendation does not change: Anyone interested in entering the Deep Web will get a more complete and secure experience by downloading a copy of the Tor Browser, and modifying various browsing habits. However, the desire to "take a look" is always present, and for those cases there is the Onion Search Engine, which presents multiple results derived from .onion portals, accessible with the help of its own Tor2Web service.
A few months ago, we shared an article dedicated to the best sites on the Deep Web, and in the process discovered the natural difficulties of obtaining reliable results. In other words, the Deep Web is full of digital garbage, with abandoned portals, error messages and broken links, and the user must make his way through all that material. But before that, some want to explore, to access "a demo", if you will.
This is where Tor2Web comes in, a project that allows users to visit "Onion services" without using the Tor Browser. Tor veterans have repeated ad nauseam that no one should use it for security reasons, but it all depends on how good it is implemented. The Onion Search Engine offers its own Tor2Web access, so all .onion portals are one click away... in theory.
Why am I saying "in theory"? Because the search engine itself doesn't fail, but the loading of the sites is a different story. Service descriptions are limited, and errors are the order of the day. Onion Search Engine does its best to determine if a service is online or not (with small green and red indicators, next to the last update date), but we can't rely too much on that.
Onion Search Engine also offers an extension to integrate its features into Google Chrome, and an Android-compatible application.
Access from Google Chrome
Onion search engine is an extension available for Google Chrome that will allow the user of this browser to search for content that is in the Tor network, in the Deep Web or also search for content that is in the so-called superficial Internet. This Chrome extension makes use of a service called TOR2WEB that makes this kind of information accessible to users of traditional browsers.
We will have two options, one to search for information on the 'Onion Network' and another to search on the 'Standard Netword'. Onion search engine ensures that the service is anonymous and that the user's privacy will be protected and respected. There are no cookies, no javascript and no external or third party codes, they say. However, to navigate these links on the Deep Web that use the .onion domain, it is necessary to install Tor Browser, as we have explained previously.
To install Onion search engine we won't have to do anything special, it's just another extension of Google Chrome, so we'll have to go to the list of browser extensions, look for it and install it. When we perform a search and find the link we want to access, it will be as simple as copying it, going to Tor Browser and pasting it into the address bar. With these tools you can start surfing the Deep Web and discover with your own eyes everything that is there, always keeping within the legal margins if you don't want to have problems.