Return Google Cache

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

cig13zs.github.io/return-google-cache

For twenty years every Google result had a Cached link — one click to see the page as Google last saw it, invaluable when a page is down, paywalled, changed, or gone. Google retired it. This adds it straight back using the Internet Archive, so the workflow you had is the workflow you have again.

Under each result you get a small row:

↻ Cached · archive.today · save now

• Cached — the latest Wayback Machine snapshot
• archive.today — its independent mirror
• save now — archive the live page this instant

No server, no tracking

It reads the result links already rendered on your screen and builds archive URLs locally. It opens no connection of its own, has no analytics, and declares no permissions key — it runs only on Google search pages and can do nothing else.

Install

Not on the Chrome Web Store yet — load it unpacked (works in Chrome, Edge, Brave, Opera):

1. Download the latest zip from Releases and unzip it.
2. Open chrome://extensions, turn on Developer mode.
3. Load unpacked → pick the extension folder.
4. Search Google — the Cached links are there.

How it's built

extension/
  manifest.json   MV3, runs only on google search pages
  core.js         cacheLinks() + enhance() — pure logic, works in browser and Node
  content.js      injects styling, runs enhance(), re-runs it as results stream in
  popup.html      toolbar popup
  icons/
core.test.js      node core.test.js

node core.test.js

The result walk is anchored on each result's <h3> title → its link, not on Google's build-hashed class names, so a redesign doesn't silently break it. Verified against live Google.

Limits

• Covers the main Google TLDs (com, co.uk, ca, de, fr, in, br, ph, jp, …). If your local Google domain isn't listed in the manifest, add one line and reload.
• Archives aren't guaranteed to have every page. If the Wayback Machine never captured a URL, its snapshot page says so — use save now to capture it going forward.
• Reads only organic result links. Ads, Google's own properties, and image thumbnails are skipped.

More tools

• Carryover — AI chat context transfer for ChatGPT, DeepSeek & Grok
• Invisibles — reveal & strip hidden Unicode from text
• Rinse — see the GPS in a photo, then wash it off
• Return 100 Results — browse ~100 Google results as one page

All free, all offline, all open source. More →

MIT licensed. Do what you like with it.