Google Ends Webpage Backups: The Death of Cached Webpages

Google Discontinues Cached Webpages

Google has announced that it will no longer be keeping a backup of the entire Internet. This means that the cached links provided by Google Search to load websites that were down or had changes will be discontinued.

The feature of cached links has been gradually disappearing for some users since December, and currently, they are no longer present in Google Search. Although Google's support pages about cached sites have been taken down, it is still possible to build your own cache links by typing the URL into the Google Search box or using the 'https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:' URL structure.

However, Google's decision to remove cached webpages aligns with the improvement in webpage loading abilities. The feature was designed to help people access pages when page loading was unreliable, but those days are behind us.

Insights from Cached Webpages

Cached webpages not only provided an alternative means of accessing websites but also offered insight into how Google's web crawler viewed the web. These pages were not rendered in the same way as the original website, and the content was often simplified to just text. Over time, Google's web crawler learned to recognize media, javascript, and other rich data on webpages. This made cached links a valuable source for learning how Google Bot analyzed and viewed websites.

With the demise of cached webpages, the burden of archiving and tracking changes on the Internet will fall on organizations like the Internet Archive. While Google's decision may free up resources for the company, it also means that accessing historical versions of webpages will become more challenging.

The Impact on Webmasters

For webmasters and website owners, the removal of cached webpages means a loss of the ability to see how their websites appeared to Google Bot. Previously, webmasters could examine the cached versions of their sites to understand how Google was indexing and displaying their content. Now, this information will only be available through the Search Console for their own websites.

Moving forward, webmasters may need to find alternative methods to gain insight into how search engines interpret their websites and make necessary optimizations.