In the past, Google cached websites when the website might not load or when users needed an archived version to see what the website looked like before. However, most of these use cases fell by the wayside, so search engines decided to deprecate this feature. However, there are other alternatives that Google may be considering implementing in the near future.
Back in December 2023, self-proclaimed search geek Barry Schwartz posted a photo on X noting that Google’s cached links were gone. They tried “dozens of queries” but were unable to find the cached page they were looking for. This post was left unattended for about a month until January 29th, when another of his I asked. From here, Barry sent his ping to Google search contact @searchliasion and explained that the feature had been removed.
Google Search Liaison says it’s one of Google’s oldest features and was meant to help people access pages “long ago, when you couldn’t rely on page loads.” explained. But now that’s less of an issue, so the decision was made to deprecate this feature. With this in mind, some archive sites offer alternatives, and perhaps Google will consider incorporating them into search soon. That means his Wayback Machine from the Internet Archive could serve as a pseudo-alternative.
Wayback Machine is a cool and useful tool that allows you to connect to almost any site and retrieve versions from years ago.if you want to see something hot hardware it looked like On the way home (Get it?) Check out the image above from the Wayback Machine in 2000. In addition to being a novelty, this also has practical applications, such as seeing how information on a website has changed, such as terms of use or privacy policy. This can also be used for data collection and information collection on websites if you need details that may have been removed.
After all, they’re not kidding when they say that what’s published on the Internet stays on the Internet. Although Google is no longer contributing to this with cached pages, other players like the Internet Archive are contributing as well, and it’s very interesting to see that. So while we say goodbye to one of Google’s oldest features, we know that all the information we need still exists on platforms like the Wayback Machine.
