Free & open source

Return Google Cache

Google removed the Cached link in 2024. This puts a working one back on every search result — pointed at the Wayback Machine and archive.today.

Wayback Machine — Internet Archive
http://web.archive.org

What happened

For twenty years, every Google result had a Cached link — one click to see the page as Google last saw it. Vital when a page is down, paywalled, changed, or deleted. Google quietly killed it in 2024. Return Google Cache adds it straight back, using the Internet Archive instead, so the workflow you had is the workflow you have again.

How it works

On every result

A small Cached · archive.today · save now row appears under each search result, styled to match Google.

No server, no tracking

It reads the result links already on your screen and builds archive URLs locally. It makes no requests of its own and collects nothing.

Three ways in

Cached opens the latest Wayback snapshot, archive.today its mirror, save now archives the live page this instant.

Install

Not on the Chrome Web Store yet — load it unpacked, it takes 20 seconds:

  1. Download the latest zip from Releases and unzip it.
  2. Open chrome://extensions and turn on Developer mode (top right).
  3. Click Load unpacked and pick the extension folder.
  4. Search Google. The Cached links are there.