Google has officially confirmed that it is removing the 'cached' button from search results. The feature allowed users to see the version of the page that was last visited and indexed by Google and was often used as an alternative when one couldn't depend on a page loading. In response to a post on X (formerly Twitter), Google Search liaison Danny Sullivan confirmed that the feature has been removed from search results because "things have greatly improved". However, he did not specify the reason why the functionality was retired. The 'cached' button, which has been around for quite some time now, previously appeared next to all search results but was later relocated under the 'About This Result' option. It was useful if you wanted to see a slightly outdated version of a webpage or wanted to visit a website that was down or not working. 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 The feature also came in handy if users wanted to check the validity of a website and SEO managers to check their page for errors. Some even used the cached button to access geo-blocked websites. While the cached button has disappeared from search results, users can still access a cached version of a webpage by adding 'cache:' as a prefix to the link in Google Search. However, Google has confirmed that the functionality will soon be gone, but did not share any timeline on when it will be removed. Sullivan hinted that the search giant might replace the cached button with links from the Internet Archive, but that doesn't seem to be in the work right now.
