Soot tags / smoke webs

[Beartracks]

So I was reading about soot tags, or smoke webs, and they are apparently caused by soot particles ionically attracted to each other to form chains while sticking to surfaces in cooler, low air-flow locations (often wall-to-ceiling angles, or around window frames / curtain rods). They are often assumed to be cobwebs that became visible through dust or soot accumulation -- but, news to me, they apparently form on their own from just the soot!

Which leads me to wonder: 1) is it possible that an actual spiderweb/cobweb COULD gather dust and/or soot, and, if so, then 2) could you tell it apart from a smoke web?

I understand that after, say, a house fire, smoke webs can be pretty large or dense, but here are some pics of "mild" ones:





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[OAITW r.2.0]

1. I wonder if these are spiders webs that provide ideal filaments to capture soot particles?

I've seen these before....just assumed they were dirty spider webs.

[Beartracks]

2. That was always my assumption, too. Note: The pics aren't mine.

I found them on the web from sites discussing smoke damage and smoke webs, so I presume they were already determined to be actual smoke webs.

Hence my confusion, cuz it seems it would be really hard to tell an actual dirty spider web from many actual smoke webs.