Google is doing away with cache links in the search results page in a move considered a significant step back in functionality.
Spotted by The Verge, Google’s search liaison Danny Sullivan confirmed in a post on X/Twitter that the company “decided to retire” cache. According to Sullivan, cache was “meant for helping people access pages when way back, you often couldn’t depend on a page loading,” and Google is retiring it because “these days, things have greatly improved.”
Hey, catching up. Yes, it’s been removed. I know, it’s sad. I’m sad too. It’s one of our oldest features. But it was meant for helping people access pages when way back, you often couldn’t depend on a page loading. These days, things have greatly improved. So, it was decided to…
— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) February 1, 2024
Google’s cache feature allows users to look at a webpage as Google sees it, and the usefulness of cache goes far beyond viewing a page that isn’t loading. Cache was a helpful resource for journalists and let them keep tabs on website changes, see if a company had added or removed text, and more.
The Verge pointed out other benefits, such as cache’s usefulness as a tool to debug websites or for companies to keep an eye on competitors. It could be a helpful alternative to a VPN, allowing people to access cached versions of sites that might be blocked in their region.
The removal of Google’s cache features has been a gradual process. Search Engine Roundtable spotted that cache links disappeared intermittently from Google search results in early December and were removed entirely at the end of January. And back in 2021, Google developer relations engineer Martin Splitt said cache was a “basically unmaintained legacy feature.”
Sullivan noted in his tweet that he hopes Google will add links to the Internet Archive to replace cache, but cautioned, “no promises.” And unless that happens, it seems like Google won’t introduce anything to replace cache.
Source: Google Search Liaison Via: The Verge
