Search engine caches like Google Cache provide a useful way to access web pages that may no longer be available online. However, these cached pages are meant for individual viewing and don't allow bulk downloading. Here's how web scraping can help access and preserve these cached copies.
Why Scrape Google Cache?
There are a few reasons you may want to scrape or download cached pages:
Challenges with Cached Page Scraping
However, scraping cache does pose some challenges:
Scraping Google Cache with Python
Here is sample Python code to carefully scrape Google Cache, avoiding detection:
import time
from selenium import webdriver
driver = webdriver.Chrome()
# Set random delays to mimic human behavior
driver.get("https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:URL_TO_SCRAPE")
time.sleep(5 + random.random() * 3)
html = driver.page_source
# Save scraped page
with open("cached_page.html", "w") as f:
f.write(html)
driver.quit() The key is to introduce realistic random pauses while navigating pages to bypass protections. For large caches, you may also need rotation of IP addresses.
I've covered some core concepts for cache scraping here.