As a web developer, I’m constantly using Google Search.  Many times per day, looking up API docs, researching something, figuring out error messages, etc.  There’s been one consistent thing that’s been bugging me: broken Google Caches.

The Cache feature doesn’t always work. In fact, this evening while trying to solve some particularly frustrating bugs, I noticed the Cache was barely working at all.  I’m talking about the little “Cached” link that appears below a listing and shows Google’s saved version of the page, with matching keywords highlighted.

Often, I find myself using this when searching through reference docs, as it speeds up my lookup process.  When the Cache feature doesn’t work, clicking it brings up a page with an error message, requiring me to hit back, curse under my breath, and click the link to the original document.  Hey Google: when Cache isn’t available, don’t show the link!  Or, better yet, just make Cache always work!

I got to thinking of this as reddit reminded me of the stupidity of results when searching for products.  Type in a product name of some physical item (looking for reviews, documentation, or anything else) and you’ll get an avalanche of useless “comparison” sites enticing you to purchase the item.  I was looking up some documentation on a particular router recently: typing in the name and model number gives you loads of useless pages for purchasing it.  Very annoying.

Really, the only reason this makes me so annoyed is because I’m used to Google being completely transparent: I can very quickly search for and find solutions to problems I have.  When I have to stop my flow because of a broken Cache link, it gets annoying.  And I’m usually in no mood to be annoyed (like this evening, when I had some ugly bugs I was sweating over).  Okay, rant over.