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Google Search’s cache links may be a thing of the past, but the tech giant has taken a step back to the future with links to the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine.
The Internet Archive is an extensive digital library resource, hosting billions of web pages, with the Wayback Machine consisting of previous versions of sites. As well as providing access to older information, it also allows users to see how websites have changed in design and layout.
Google commenced the new process on September 11, with users able to discover archived versions through Google Search directly, instead of having to use a separate, third-party tool.
“Google Search is now making it easier than ever to access the past,” said the Internet Archive team on the company blog.
For more than 25 years, the Wayback Machine has been capturing elements of our shared history on the World Wide Web. Mark Graham, the company director commented on the need to preserve this information.“The web is aging, and with it, countless URLs now lead to digital ghosts.”
Back in February, following the loss of cache links, Google Search liaison Danny Sullivan posted on X to express his wish to see Internet Archive links embedded into search results. That now appears to be granted.
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
How to Use Wayback on Google Search
The process is relatively easy to use.
On the Google Search homepage, users should enter a search term in the usual way.
On the list of results, each entry will show three dots, and when selected, an ‘About this Result’ menu will appear.
From this panel, select ‘More About This Page’ which will then reveal a link to the Wayback Machine for your particular search term. This will display all the relevant, previous versions of the website listed on the archive.
