Where Are Google Search Cached And Similar Links?

If you have been using Google Search in past years you may have noticed a cached and similar link next to nearly every search result on Google. The cached entry linked to a cached copy of the web page that Google stored on their own servers. The similar link on the other hand listed related sites instead.

Webmasters know that Google saves information about every web page googlebot, the company’s search engine crawler, visits. While it was not possible to access the cached link of every website in existence as some did not show up, it was a nice way of accessing a site’s content in case that it was temporarily or permanently unavailable.

Users were also able to access a site’s contents without actually visiting that site. Handy in networks where that particular website was blocked. And the similar link feature was interesting to discover new related websites and services.

Google has revamped the design of the results pages noticeably in past years. They introduced a permanent sidebar on the left linking to specialized searches and advanced filters. The company introduced so called instant previews of every site in the search engines.

Two elements that have been removed in the process are the cached link and similar link. If you visit a Google search results page nowadays you will not find the cached or similar link there anymore. The links are still there but in hiding.

Google has moved cached and similar links to the instant preview area. This is not as intuitive as it may sounds. You need to hover your mouse over a search result to display the instant preview arrows on the right of it. If you now move your mouse over that area you will see a screenshot of how the particular site looked on googlebots last visit.

Displayed near the top next to the page’s title are the cached and similar links. A left-click opens the cached or similar pages in the same tab, a middle-click in a new tab in the web browser.

There you have it. Both features are still there, albeit more hidden and less comfortable to access. (via)

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Author: Martin Brinkmann, Wednesday October 19, 2011 -
Tags:Google, google cache, google search, search engine

Responses so far:

1. Ophiuchus says:

   October 20, 2011 at 1:40 am

   The problem being that I don’t want the preview, but I want the cache. But if I disable the preview “feature” I’m hosed in re: cached.

   Reply
2. strl says:

   October 20, 2011 at 5:08 am

   There’s a Greasemonkey Userscript that restores the old functionality if anyone is interested.
   ‘Resurrect Google Cache & Related links’ :
   http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/114455

   Reply
   • Martin Brinkmann says:

     October 20, 2011 at 6:41 am

     Nice find, really good.

     Reply
3. Roman ShaRP says:

   October 20, 2011 at 7:01 am

   Thanks strl.

   Yes, I found where cached is now (by intuition :) ), but I don’t like this Google decision.

   Reply
4. Anon says:

   October 20, 2011 at 8:01 am

   Since I dumped Google for Bing, those were the feature for what I used to visit Google sometimes. Now only if Bing can get these little features (and may be also change there orange colour scheme), then it will be fine for 99% of my search needs.

   P.S. Just noticed that FF spell checker accepts “Google” as correct word but not “Bing”. It suggest Sing, Ring, Ting, Ling, Ding as corrections. LoL.

   Reply
5. Transcontinental says:

   October 20, 2011 at 8:42 am

   Using a “googleMonkeyR” userscript, I have no preview (disabled) and cached & similar sites are displayed as by the past.
   Without scripts I know I would have switched to another search engine since a long time.

   Reply
6. Transcontinental says:

   October 20, 2011 at 9:01 am

   I think there are a few “googleMonkeyR” usercripts. The one I was referring to is http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/9310

   Reply
7. odio says:

   October 20, 2011 at 12:26 pm

   thank you! i never look to the instant preview page and i was wondering wheres the cache…

   Reply
   • Martin Brinkmann says:

     October 20, 2011 at 3:27 pm

     You are welcome. I’m happy they are still there, and with the userscript someone posted here it is even more comfortable.

     Reply
     • odio says:

       October 21, 2011 at 6:11 am

       Tested the script right now and works fine!
8. RD says:

   October 21, 2011 at 2:13 am

   Thanks, Martin. Very helpful article.

   Reply