"Arrr! Google be sayin' goodbye to them cached web pages, leavin' us landlubbers mournin' the loss of history!"
2024-02-07
Avast, ye landlubbers! Google be shoutin' from the mast that they be cuttin' off the previous treasure maps o' the web, claimin' to bring better reliability. But us scallywags be weepin' o'er the loss of a precious booty and the end o' a grand ol' time. Ahoy, the times be changin'!
In a recent announcement, Google revealed that it will no longer be backing up cached pages. Cached pages are digital copies of web pages that serve as backups or snapshots of websites. Google has been creating and storing cached pages for many years, and these backups have been fundamental to its search infrastructure. The cached links allow users to access past versions of websites, which can be helpful if a page has gone offline or undergone significant changes.However, Google has now decided to retire this feature. According to Google's "Search Liaison" Danny Sulivan, the decision was made because the need for cached pages has decreased with the improvement of web page loading times. Sulivan suggests that Google may rely on the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine, a digital archive of the World Wide Web, to provide snapshots of web pages in its search results. However, this reliance on the Internet Archive presents challenges, as the archive is smaller and younger than Google's collection of cached pages.
Since December 2023, cached pages have been disappearing and reappearing for some users, and as of February 2, 2024, Ars Technica reported that it couldn't find any Google Search cache links. However, users can still create their own cache links by typing specific URLs or using Google Search with the "cache:" command.
This change by Google may be a cost-cutting measure, as storing vast amounts of historical web data requires significant storage space. However, it is unfortunate as Google's caching feature has been essential for documenting and preserving the ever-evolving World Wide Web. It has been valuable not only for researchers and students but for anyone who wanted to revisit websites and pages that have since disappeared.
Overall, this decision by Google marks a significant change in its search infrastructure, and it remains to be seen how this will impact users' ability to access past versions of websites.