5 ms·

Google will no longer back up the Internet: Cached webpages are dead

79 points by roldie 3y ago

dreamcompiler 3y ago
It's ironic that AMP was basically an effort by Google to force everybody to pull every web page from Google's servers, and now Google says "hey caching everything is too expensive."
- lern_too_spel 3y ago
  It's the exact opposite. AMP, as an open alternative to FBIA or Apple News, lets anybody cache an AMP and serve it as if it were served from the original host. Other search engines also cached AMP. It's just that you use Google, so that's the only cache you're familiar with.
  - hmcq6 3y ago
    Another lawsuit, filed in January 2023 by the US Justice Department, went even further, alleging that Google envisioned AMP as “an effort to push parts of the open web into a Google-controlled walled garden, one where Google could dictate more directly how digital advertising space could be sold.” https://www.theverge.com/23711172/google-amp-accelerated-mobile-pages-search-publishers-lawsuit https://www.theverge.com/23711172/google-amp-accelerated-mob...
    - lern_too_spel 3y ago
      Alleging. The spec is there to read, and the proof is in the pudding of multiple companies running AMP caches. We are technologists, not bumbling idiots who don't understand Incognito Mode.
1vuio0pswjnm7 3y ago
https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/02/google-search-kills-off-cached-webpages/ https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https:... https://web.archive.org/web/20240202101437if_/https://www.theverge.com/2024/2/2/24058985/google-search-cache-feature-discontinued https://web.archive.org/web/20240202101437if_/https://www.th... https://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/index2.php?rev_t=9999999999999999999999&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theverge.com%2F2024%2F2%2F2%2F24058985%2Fgoogle-search-cache-feature-discontinued https://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/index2.php?rev_t=999999999...
kgeist 3y ago
Webpage caching used to be a quick and easy way to by-pass government censorship in my country. AMP pages still work and allow you to access banned resources such as BBC.
mannycalavera42 3y ago
some of us could consider donating a small monthly amount to archive.org -> https://archive.org/donate?origin=iawww-hackernews https://archive.org/donate?origin=iawww-hackernews
hulitu 3y ago
> Google will no longer back up the Internet: Cached webpages are dead This is the wrong conclusion. Just because you don't have access to data, it does not mean it is deleted.
samstave 3y ago
What will they do will all the defunct storage they previously used for cache? What has Google ever done with old HW?
- ijhuygft776 3y ago
  There's some on Ebay... not sure if it's their official way to get rid of their stuff. I.E.: https://www.ebay.com/itm/296133215661 https://www.ebay.com/itm/296133215661
  - staticfish 3y ago
    I would be surprised if this was actual Google hardware. Most likely this is one of their pagerank (?) servers that Google sold to business customers way back in the day. * Edit: It seems these we called the Google Search Appliance. GSA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMbvt1iARJ8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMbvt1iARJ8
    - livueta 3y ago
      Yeah, it's a Google Search Appliance: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Search_Appliance https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Search_Appliance Commodity Dell server painted yellow. e: oops, didn't refresh
    - harry8 3y ago
      buy it and enforce the gpl on google to get their source. /s
- nostrademons 3y ago
  Almost certainly they're keeping the copies but removing them from the public UI. A bunch of ranking signals, anti-spam techniques, semantic information about the page, etc. stem from the history of how it was updated. The article even says how to get to the cached pages (bypassing the SERP), so clearly they still exist.
staticfish 3y ago
Cached webpages have pretty much been dead since the pandemic, at least from my usage in the last few years. There used to be a prominent cache link under the search results, then it moved to a weird overflow menu thing, and then finally about a year or more ago, Google exposed no cache version for most websites. This just seems like confirmation. Still really shitty. I used it constantly. I hate new Google.
Reubend 3y ago
I'm quite sad to see the removal of cached pages. The Internet Archive's Wayback Machine is a great alternative, but they don't have the massive reach that the Google crawler does. At the same time though, this decision makes so much sense from a business perspective. That feature must have occupied huge amounts of extra storage, and I'm guessing that usage is quite low.
- paxys 3y ago
  I think it's more about liability than cost. Especially now with conversations around copyright of online content coming into the forefront.
  - staticfish 3y ago
    More likely that they've laid-off or reassigned the person(s) responsible for Googlecache, and want to sunset the feature as fast as possible.
  - sjwhevvvvvsj 3y ago
    The company is run by an accountant (Ruth, technically CFO but shadow CEO). All decisions are accounting now, there is no deeper logic.
    - AnonymousPlanet 3y ago
      If that is true, the company that was once admired for keeping its feelers in the unexplored search space of possible projects has basically become Oracle, but without the guaranteed income through locked in customers. It would be like the reverse of diversification.
      - killingtime74 3y ago
        Concentration
metadat 3y ago
Ongoing related discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39234246 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39234246
sjwhevvvvvsj 3y ago
The beatings will continue until morale improves.
ChrisArchitect 3y ago
[dupe] Lots more discussion here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39198329 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39198329
eviks 3y ago
Interestingly enough, the "Our mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful" statement is still there in Google's about page

79 points by roldie 3y ago

It's ironic that AMP was basically an effort by Google to force everybody to pull every web page from Google's servers, and now Google says "hey caching everything is too expensive."

lern_too_spel 3y ago
It's the exact opposite. AMP, as an open alternative to FBIA or Apple News, lets anybody cache an AMP and serve it as if it were served from the original host. Other search engines also cached AMP. It's just that you use Google, so that's the only cache you're familiar with.
- hmcq6 3y ago
  Another lawsuit, filed in January 2023 by the US Justice Department, went even further, alleging that Google envisioned AMP as “an effort to push parts of the open web into a Google-controlled walled garden, one where Google could dictate more directly how digital advertising space could be sold.” https://www.theverge.com/23711172/google-amp-accelerated-mobile-pages-search-publishers-lawsuit https://www.theverge.com/23711172/google-amp-accelerated-mob...
  - lern_too_spel 3y ago
    Alleging. The spec is there to read, and the proof is in the pudding of multiple companies running AMP caches. We are technologists, not bumbling idiots who don't understand Incognito Mode.

1vuio0pswjnm7 3y ago

https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/02/google-search-kills-off-cached-webpages/ https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https:... https://web.archive.org/web/20240202101437if_/https://www.theverge.com/2024/2/2/24058985/google-search-cache-feature-discontinued https://web.archive.org/web/20240202101437if_/https://www.th... https://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/index2.php?rev_t=9999999999999999999999&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theverge.com%2F2024%2F2%2F2%2F24058985%2Fgoogle-search-cache-feature-discontinued https://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/index2.php?rev_t=999999999...

kgeist 3y ago

Webpage caching used to be a quick and easy way to by-pass government censorship in my country. AMP pages still work and allow you to access banned resources such as BBC.

mannycalavera42 3y ago

some of us could consider donating a small monthly amount to archive.org -> https://archive.org/donate?origin=iawww-hackernews https://archive.org/donate?origin=iawww-hackernews

hulitu 3y ago

> Google will no longer back up the Internet: Cached webpages are dead This is the wrong conclusion. Just because you don't have access to data, it does not mean it is deleted.

samstave 3y ago

What will they do will all the defunct storage they previously used for cache? What has Google ever done with old HW?

ijhuygft776 3y ago
There's some on Ebay... not sure if it's their official way to get rid of their stuff. I.E.: https://www.ebay.com/itm/296133215661 https://www.ebay.com/itm/296133215661
- staticfish 3y ago
  I would be surprised if this was actual Google hardware. Most likely this is one of their pagerank (?) servers that Google sold to business customers way back in the day. * Edit: It seems these we called the Google Search Appliance. GSA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMbvt1iARJ8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMbvt1iARJ8
  - livueta 3y ago
    Yeah, it's a Google Search Appliance: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Search_Appliance https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Search_Appliance Commodity Dell server painted yellow. e: oops, didn't refresh
  - harry8 3y ago
    buy it and enforce the gpl on google to get their source. /s
nostrademons 3y ago
Almost certainly they're keeping the copies but removing them from the public UI. A bunch of ranking signals, anti-spam techniques, semantic information about the page, etc. stem from the history of how it was updated. The article even says how to get to the cached pages (bypassing the SERP), so clearly they still exist.

staticfish 3y ago

Cached webpages have pretty much been dead since the pandemic, at least from my usage in the last few years. There used to be a prominent cache link under the search results, then it moved to a weird overflow menu thing, and then finally about a year or more ago, Google exposed no cache version for most websites. This just seems like confirmation. Still really shitty. I used it constantly. I hate new Google.

Reubend 3y ago

I'm quite sad to see the removal of cached pages. The Internet Archive's Wayback Machine is a great alternative, but they don't have the massive reach that the Google crawler does. At the same time though, this decision makes so much sense from a business perspective. That feature must have occupied huge amounts of extra storage, and I'm guessing that usage is quite low.

paxys 3y ago
I think it's more about liability than cost. Especially now with conversations around copyright of online content coming into the forefront.
- staticfish 3y ago
  More likely that they've laid-off or reassigned the person(s) responsible for Googlecache, and want to sunset the feature as fast as possible.
- sjwhevvvvvsj 3y ago
  The company is run by an accountant (Ruth, technically CFO but shadow CEO). All decisions are accounting now, there is no deeper logic.
  - AnonymousPlanet 3y ago
    If that is true, the company that was once admired for keeping its feelers in the unexplored search space of possible projects has basically become Oracle, but without the guaranteed income through locked in customers. It would be like the reverse of diversification.
    - killingtime74 3y ago
      Concentration

metadat 3y ago

Ongoing related discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39234246 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39234246

sjwhevvvvvsj 3y ago

The beatings will continue until morale improves.

ChrisArchitect 3y ago

[dupe] Lots more discussion here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39198329 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39198329

eviks 3y ago

Interestingly enough, the "Our mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful" statement is still there in Google's about page