Manually View Google Cached Pages to Discover a Website's History

The cached page is a snapshot of web pages from around the world taken by the Google search engine, that is, the web content Google crawled and stored at a certain point in time.

Cached pages let us view web pages that have been changed or deleted, or pages that are temporarily inaccessible, much like a backup of web content.

This was originally a useful feature, but unfortunately Google recently said it was no longer willing to bear the cost of such a large-scale storage space, and removed the cached page feature from the search results page.

Many people found this inconvenient, not knowing how to view cached pages in the future.

In fact, viewing cached pages is still very simple. You just need to append the path of the web page you want to view to the following URL:

https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:

For example, if you want to view the cached page of the Vedfolnir website, you can enter the following in your browser:

https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:www.vedfolnir.com

You will then see the snapshot of the Vedfolnir website that Google crawled at 21:04:23 GMT+08:00 on February 6, 2024.

You can see that at the top of the cached page there is a notice bar telling you that this is a cached page and showing the crawl time and the original URL. You can also click the “Text-only version” or “View original page” links to switch between different display modes.

The Functions and Limitations of Cached Pages

The function of cached pages is to let us view past web content, which has certain value for research, study, record-keeping, or entertainment. For example, we can see how the web pages of certain celebrities or organizations changed at different points in time, or look at web pages or websites that no longer exist.

The limitation of cached pages is that they do not necessarily reflect the latest state of a web page, nor can they necessarily fully present all elements of a page. For example, some dynamic content, such as videos, music, games, or interactive features, may not work properly in a cached page. In addition, some pages that require login or authorization may also be unavailable in a cached page.

The Update Frequency and Retention Time of Cached Pages

The update frequency and retention time of cached pages depend on Google’s algorithm, which decides based on a page’s importance, traffic, changes, and other factors. Generally speaking, the more popular, newer, and more valuable a page is, the higher and longer its update and retention frequency and time will be. Conversely, the more obscure, older, and less relevant a page is, the lower and shorter its update and retention frequency and time will be.

We cannot directly control or query the update frequency and retention time of cached pages, but we can influence them through some methods. For example, we can use Google’s “Submit URL” tool to tell Google that our page has been updated, so that Google crawls and updates the cached page as soon as possible. Alternatively, we can use Google’s “Remove URL” tool to ask Google to delete cached pages we do not want others to see.

Conclusion

Google’s cached page is a useful feature that lets us view past web content. Although Google has removed the cached page link from the search results page, we can still view cached pages through a simple URL. It is just unclear when Google will clear all the past cached data, and that depends on their own decision.