Hey Google, I want my cache links back

Just google for<p><pre><code> cache:http://www.example.com/ </code></pre> and it will take you directly to the cached site. This is particularly nice in combination with Chrome's omnibar where you just have to prepend "cache:" before the current URL, hit return, and it will automatically show the cached version of the page you are viewing.

Another thing that has been annoying me lately is that it seems like like I have to add a + in front of every word or Google might decide without any indication that it will completely ignore it.

The OP raises a wider point:<p><pre><code> For the longest time google made good on their promise to keep their search page simple and easy to use. Now, bit by bit the search page is getting more filled up with cruft that you don't need and stuff that you do need gets removed. </code></pre> I am getting a hunch (just a vague feeling) that we might be approaching a time where a new, simpler search experience would pick up a lot of users - maybe amongst us HN/early adopters?

If it makes people feel better, I just spent around an hour debating the points from this discussion in my office with other people who work on Google's search UI and search quality.<p>P.S. If people want to leave examples, for example "If I do the search ["society of spectacles"] I get a result which doesn't have that phrase," I'm happy to pass that to people here to debug.

I don't agree this is necessarily bad. Arguably, "view cache" is a feature for power-users that know what they're doing.<p>Moving the cache link into that pop-up did simplify the user interface in the most common case, in which the user just wants to view the real link. It no longer has to be rendered for every result.<p>IMO it just takes some getting used to that the cache link has been moved. Or are you viewing pages from cache <i>that</i> regularly that the extra clicks/mouse moves are a problem?

This does not bode well for the employees at google. You get extra features like this (instant preview) when you have too much manpower - you look for things for your employees to do.<p>But if your customers don't want it, and you can't find anything else for them to do then you start reducing the workforce.

I didn't realize they'd hidden cached pages this way...but here's a data point on human behavior that may be non-optimal for Google:<p>So, yesterday, I searched for something on Google, found what I wanted, went to click Cache and it wasn't there.<p>I didn't think to go mousing over the page...I instead did what any red-blooded search engine user in a hurry would do: I copied the URL, pasted it into Bing, and viewed cache from there. 0_o

Another thing I find more annoying with the recent changes is that previously visited links are not marked as such any longer. When searching for the solution to a problem, it is quite nice to easily know which pages have already been visited using a different search query.

I haven't noticed this till now and now I'm shocked. I hated the preview so much that I had to use a custom stylish addon script for firefox to block the annoying thing. Now that the cache is moved to preview, I'm stuck between getting annoyed with preview again or losing the cache links :(. I just don't understand what they were trying to solve with all these changes...

"For the longest time google made good on their promise to keep their search page simple and easy to use. Now, bit by bit the search page is getting more filled up with cruft that you don't need and stuff that you do need gets removed."<p>I completely agree with this...

I thought I was going crazy when I realized the cache links were gone... good to know I wasn't the only one and that they're still there, though hidden (I never click on the preview arrows).

If the feature wasn't widely used I'm sure that's the reason for it's disappearance...Google has a tendency to make decisions by the numbers, if they don't see engagement with certain features, they get the axe rather quickly

Not to mention the annoying +1 button after each link. I don't want to +1 unless I visited it, and I don't mind taking the extra step of sharing if I found a webpage interesting!

I mainly went to the cache link. Getting easy access to the highlighted search terms was so useful.

i too dislike the previews. there's a few things that i find useful tho:<p>- timeline<p>- image search<p>- cache (when it was there and working. lately, it didnt work aka it tries to fetch from the server and if its down, which is what i often use cache for, then it fails)<p>hum, well thats it.<p>special search commands used to be cool but they don't work so well now (i mean the filetype stuff and all). and the rest are just bloated reactions to "bing fear" or something

<p><pre><code> .vspii { display: none !important; } </code></pre> Will hide the buttons that display the "preview" thing when you mouse over them.

I'm just getting fucking sick of it. This includes supporting a number of "normal" users on Google products. Of course, my/our opinion doesn't count. Nonetheless, Google UI and support (<i>cough</i>) are now actively pushing me away.

I was bored so wrote some JS to put the links back. Only works in chrome.<p>As a userscript: <a href="http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/114144" rel="nofollow">http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/114144</a><p>Or as a bookmarklet: javascript:(function(){var c=document.querySelectorAll('a[href*="webcache.googleusercontent.com"]');for(var a=0,b;b=c[a];a++){b.parentElement.parentElement.parentElement.parentElement.querySelector("h3.r").parentElement.insertBefore(b)}})()

The iPad "Tablet" Google results experience has removed them completely, no instant preview, no "hidden" swipe-to-expose (that I could find). You have to go to the "classic" version, via a link on the bottom of the page, to get them back.<p>The classic version? It's the one we used to have: no instant preview, Cache link present on almost every listing.<p>So, at least on some platforms, the info-dense but useful version is sill around...

One of the things he mentions here is that some sites don't have a cached link at all - it may be because they're explicitly telling Google not to cache the page. You can do that using the noarchive tag, which looks like this:<p>&#60;meta name="robots" content="noarchive" /&#62;

That's a minor annoyance compared to the changes they made to the search logic. I noticed lately that way too frequently now the first result page contains irrelevant junk unless I resort to using quotes. And even then quoted words appear to be mangled and ignored at will.<p>Complained about it too here, about a month ago, which is when it appears to have started - <a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2935261" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2935261</a>

I just noticed it yesterday (or maybe the day before).<p>It is really a bummer when you are <i>used</i> to going to a website to use their feature and the feature isn't there anymore.

Easily solved with this chrome extension which gives you a dropdown with links to the google cache, as well as The Internet Archive, Yahoo Cache, MSN cache(Bing Cache), CoralCDN, Gigablast, and WebCite.<p><a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/coblegoildgpecccijneplifmeghcgip" rel="nofollow">https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/coblegoildgpecccij...</a><p>or, as others have said, just google for cache:&#60;url&#62;

Install the Hide Google Instant Previews Userscript in Greasemonkey: <a href="http://userscripts.org/scripts/review/90222" rel="nofollow">http://userscripts.org/scripts/review/90222</a><p>Replace one line of code with this:<p>var css = ".vspib {display: none;} .vshid {display: inline; margin-left:7px;}";<p>You'll get "cache" and "similar" links back.<p>Thanks, bitmap.

I agree with the author, but a convenient workaround is to use a bookmarklet: <a href="http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2007/07/useful-google-bookmarklets.html" rel="nofollow">http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2007/07/useful-google-bookm...</a>

I often use cache links instead of going to the actual site since it was faster and your search terms were highlighted in the document. Now it takes a bit of work to get to the cache link.

Great extension for firefox:<p><a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/resurrect-pages/" rel="nofollow">https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/resurrect-pag...</a>

To be fair, I suspect that the cache link was used by 0.1% of all users. Even I almost never use it, and I am likely to be a power user.

i also dislike the previews :'( and the cached link was nice and easy, now an annoying extra click, etc. Why oh why?<p>Aaaargh!

Google implement AB testing don't they. They'll probably be back tomorrow - don't worry.

I used the cache links purely because it hilighted my search terms, just me?

Mine is still here.<p>(Just don't get me wrong, what I really miss is the "Related" link)

This is Google being dumbed down for the average user.

I think they're trying to make their interface look exactly like Bing so the only way Microsoft can compete is by having better search results.<p>You guys at HN probably don't check out Bing very much, but many of the UI changes in Google were in Bing first... hover over a search result to show more info on the side, image search with just images (details when you hover), infinite scroll on image search, background image on main search page, etc.

Search is just one of those things where power users will always rule, because in an information economy whoever has best access to information becomes dominant, and the copycats follow in order to keep up. So a search engine has to cater to power users.

<p><pre><code> Now that's a pretty dumb move. If it isn't broken *please* don't fix it. &#62;*please* </code></pre> Does his blog software not allow him to italicize text?