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I want to look at a Google cached version of a webpage, but can't find it through the usual mechanisms, as per this related question.

Is there a way to modify the URL in the address bar to take me to the last cached page for a specific URL?

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  • Do you mean the cache ID ? because there is a cached page for the first page mentioned. – phwd♦ May 24 '11 at 13:48
  • @phwd, I searched for hours and couldn't find the cached page. What I would like is a mechanism to modify some Google URL to give me the cached page, which would probably involve the cache ID. – Lance Roberts May 25 '11 at 1:31
  • The answer in related question does work - provided you use Chrome, however. fwiw link to the cached page webcache.googleusercontent.com/… – Sathyajith Bhat♦ May 25 '11 at 4:24
  • @Sathya, wow, that was the exact day I wanted it for also. So why does Chrome do better getting Google caches than other browsers? – Lance Roberts May 25 '11 at 5:06
  • I think this was more of a case where the page was not cached by Google at the time you searched. I'll spend some time later trying to find how cache:<url> works in Chrome - if nothing Chromium sources should highlight what it's doing. – Sathyajith Bhat♦ May 25 '11 at 5:12
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You can access the cached version for any page that has been saved by Google with this:

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://example.com/

Change http://example.com/ to any URL. You can also create a custom search engine on Chrome or a Firefox keyword to go to cached versions automatically by adding a keyword before the current URL address.

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  • I used that for a script here but it seems google doesen't allow such a link in an iframe, would you know a workaround? – rubo77 Nov 8 '12 at 12:01
  • The custom search engine is brilliant. – Matt Ball Nov 24 '13 at 4:40
  • +1; also works without the http:// prefix; curiously, there is at least one URL that doesn't work, however: http://www.cnn.com/; any idea why?: webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://… (variations without http:// and www don't work either). – mklement0 Jul 22 '14 at 18:30
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    @mklement0: That's because CNN doesn't allow it. – Kard Nails Jan 24 '15 at 11:33
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    @SomeNickName You use Google as your default search engine, so all that Firefox did was perform a Google search for cache:http://example.com/, which redirects to the cached page (as pointed out by the other answer on this page). This would "work" on any browser with Google as the default search engine. However, my solution will work even if you use other search engines, and it goes straight to the cached page instead of going through the Google search redirection. – user14334 Jan 9 '16 at 0:46
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If you use Google Chrome, just use this query to get the cache page from Google:

cache:http://www.example.net/

For example you can use:

cache:http://www.example.com/catalog/item/6395190/8298122.htm

in Google search to find the corresponding cache page.

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  • yes, that was given in the related question. I'm specifically looking for a way to modify the URL to get the cached page. – Lance Roberts May 25 '11 at 13:03
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    Both methods above now seem to result in a 404 – user21742 Jul 3 '12 at 1:32
  • agreed, all versions of this 'fix' result in Google 404. i love how Google has a cache cause it can see the text and gives you the picture sniplet to the right but no way to blow up the webpage to read the entire cached version--completely useless. There has to be a way.. – user23377 Aug 16 '12 at 4:38
  • I tried this and the search isn't triggered. Mmmm, this is odd (tried with other URLs aswell) – ajax333221 Sep 4 '12 at 1:24
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    I still use this to get cached versions in Chrome: cache:http://example.com – Xeoncross Jun 6 '13 at 21:29

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