Google has removed links to page caches from its search results. It was always possible to go to older indexed versions of a site via the cache link, but Google no longer considers that option relevant.
Google employee Danny Sullivan confirms that the cache functionality is no longer visible in the search results. Users could always click through to more information about a page in the search results and find the cache of a page there. That was the page as Google indexed it, which could sometimes show different information, for example if a page had been recently updated.
Sullivan says that according to Google, the feature was no longer relevant. The cache function was introduced years ago, mainly as an alternative to visiting a website if the original website would not load due to, for example, a poor connection. “Today, things have improved a lot. That’s why Google has decided to stop the feature,” he says.
Google started slowly removing it a few months ago. Some users I already noticed this at the beginning of December last year. Google refers to the use of the Google Search Console which allows website administrators to see what the Google crawler has indexed about their own pages. There are also many alternatives to view old web pages, such as the Wayback Machine.
Correction: adjusted that the Google Search Console is not intended for average users but for website administrators.