Google has confirmed that the caching feature for loading links in surveys has been eliminated. This information was verified on “X” (new Twitter) by the “Google Search Liason” account in response to a query from user Barry Schartz regarding the absence of cached links in search results.
Danny Sullivan from Google’s “Google Search Liason” profile confirmed on X that there are no longer any links supported by the “caching” feature. Sullivan expressed regret over the decision as the functionality remains valuable for journalists and SEO experts today.
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
It has been taken out, which is a loss as it was an old feature designed to aid users when pages didn’t load reliably in the past.
What impact does this modification have on the procedure?
Google’s search engine includes a “caching” feature that allows users to access a website’s content even if it is no longer available online. This function is helpful for journalists to verify any changes made to a website’s content.
Google’s “caching” feature was beneficial for SEO professionals to identify past website issues. However, for regular users, it meant losing access to valuable information on websites that were temporarily inaccessible.
An alternative option suggested by Danny Sullivan is to collaborate with the Internet Archive, a non-profit organization dedicated to archiving various online content such as websites, software, movies, books, and audio recordings.
