When is the last time you cleared your cache? Do you know what cache is? Do you know how to clear your cache? If the term cache eludes you, you’re probably in good company. It’s pronounced ‘cash’, yes, just like Johnny, and not ‘cashay’ as if you were from West Los Angeles.
Some of you may have a deep understanding for what cache is, and some may have heard it but wondered a little what it might be. Here are my thoughts on cache and what I feel is important to know about it, without getting all technical on you.
By the way, you can go about your lives never having to know the inner-workings of cache and be just fine. There are some things you might want to know though, like how to get rid of it! So read on if you want to know more about cache.
What is Cache?
In my own terms, cache is a temporary place to keep a copy of information for faster retrieval on the second request for said information. You might guess that I would continue on to say that information in this context is nearly anything you want it to be. It could be a stretch to say that moving the coffee brewer closer to you is no different than saving a web page onto your local computer so that the next time you need another cup, or need to visit that web page again, it’s cached for quicker delivery.
And that’s exactly it. Cache is nothing more than a mechanism that allows you to surf faster because the resources the page needs (images, the html page) are already available on the computer you are working on. The page doesn’t need to reach out across the Internet to get that picture or other things.
Here’s another way to think of it. Imagine you visit a particular site every day. This site has a banner graphic across the top that is quite large, and every time you visit, it takes a while for the large header image to travel across the wires every time. That sucks. Really, it does.
If that header graphic was stored on your computer, the browser you are using could be set up to detect that you’ve visited this page before, and that large graphic is sitting right over here next to us. Why bother to download it again when we have it right here!
Your browser can also be set up to detect when the graphic files are different and download the image to refresh your cache.
Most browsers are pre-configured to store some information into cache for quicker access to repeat data.
Why Clear or Delete the Cache?
Well, because sometimes you just get some wacky things happening. Many times while developing a web site I’ll find that it’s good to clear the cache every now and then to get a fresh perspective on the site. Once I clear the cache, I know that everything will be coming straight from the server in brand spanking new form and function.
Sometimes you just get to a point where things aren’t acting like they should. Perhaps you start getting errors with some of the web sites you work on, where there probably shouldn’t be an error. When this starts happening to me, the first thing I do is clear my browsers cache and restart the browser. If the same error happens again, then I know it isn’t due to an outdated or corrupt copy of information in the cache. If clearing the cache rectifies the issue, good deal.
How to Clear or Delete your Cache
With the number of browsers floating around the world, and the number of versions, and also the number of blogs already demonstrating how to clear your cache, instead of regurgitating the information for you, here are a couple videos that should help you figure out how to clear your cache.
Firefox
Internet Explorer
Chrome
Most all browsers are set up with nearly the same menu systems and concepts, so the above videos should be good enough for anyone to figure out how to clear their cache in the browsers.
Understanding the simple concept of what cache is and how it’s used by browsers to increase your surfing speed will help you in the future. No longer will someone say to you ‘clear your cache’ and leave you thinking they wanted to rob you, but walked off instead. No, cache is a good thing and helpful, but from time to time, things can go haywire and you’ll need to delete your cache.
As always, if there are further questions please feel free to ask!
You might also enjoy these related posts
- How To Increase Web Traffic with Keyword Questions I’m going to let you in on a secret today on how to increase web traffic. Using keyword questions is an easy way that I found late last year to...
- Top 10 Search Engine Traffic Driving Content In light of my extended hiatus from posting here, here is some of my top 10 search engine traffic driving content found on WayneJohn.com. While I’ve been away, I haven’t...
- Links For New Readers and Bloggers I took a stroll through my archives and created a link list of all the posts that are geared toward increasing your knowledge in area important to web development and...
- Make it clear with Cayra, for FREE! What in the world is Cayra? It’s a free mind-mapping tool that I just learned about from Joe Stagner’s blog. In case you don’t know what mind mapping software can...
- Use BrowserShots.org to check your sites browser/OS compatibility Writing a web site that conforms to a variety of browser and operating system configurations is a pain in the ass, plain and simple. I would venture a guess that...
Getting started with a website is easy. Simply follow these steps to get started:
Colleen@Kennewick... (3)
Mandy June@Cd Rates (3)
Brian Rogel@Best ... (2)
Mipie@mobilt bred... (2)
Aaron (1)
Affiliation Adulte (1)
Alex Pablate (1)
Alison @ Travelli... (1)
Ari Herzog@Online... (1)
BJ@Charleston Sou... (1)
i have googlechrome i dont know how to delete the cache
says:
I updated this post to include Chrome, enjoy!
Will clearing/deleting cache effect my computer? I mean “harm” something? Is it VERY important?
says:
Clearing your cache will not harm anything. It might cause you to re-login to every site you ever visited and logged into and then saved credentials for…but no harm.
Well, yeah, actually. It came like that. haha I only added the code they gave me.
Thank you for explaining the cache and how to clear it so clearly. I wasn’t aware of any reasons to clear it, nor did I really know what it was for. Now I do =]
Also I want to add that I like how the middle of this page scrolls while the Feedback button on the right side stays in place. That’s pretty cool. I bet it’s a trick you can explain easily too… -Ben
Anne, contact the web master of the site that your friend is having issues with. This is not a case of having to be cleared.
This is somewhat an O.T., how can we correct an IP address that has been marked as a spammer? My friend was very angry when a message just popped up saying about the blockage when he did not even know what spamming is. He is just new to forum and blog posting. Is this a case of cache not cleared?
Thanks for the info. I see the word cache but i never bother to check what does it mean. Now i know what it is
Hi Frank, thanks for dropping that link, good information there. I always thought it best to start a fresh browser as well, after clearing cache. Perhaps it’s just habit on my part, but do you think it’s necessary on some browsers?
Thanks for your submission to the Thirty-Third edition of the Blog Carnival: Blogging. Your post has been accepted and its http://thatsblog.com/?p=195
-ThatsBlog.com
I found some step by step screenshots on how to clear your cache on http://www.refreshyourcache.com.
Darn, I’m really sorry to hear that, but I just visited your blogs and they seem fine. If you don’t see them from where you are, I suspect that the problem is more geographic than an issue with your blog itself. maybe.
I’m glad that you felt I could help you, and I probably could now that I found @blogger on Twitter, but I don’t see the problem. I even added myself to follow your blog.
Let me know if you see that happen again, and I’ll see what I can do for you. Take care!
Hi, my valued friend…
I am Vanea Bell from Romania and i’m very, very depressed… I have two little blogs in Blugger and i write some poems… But i can’t do that anymore…! :’( I don’t know why… I don’t know how… But my blogs are blocked…! And my Blogger dashboard gives me an error message… :’( Please, if, if you want to take a small part of my pain from me, because it hurts so much… Knowing that my poems are lost and i don’t have where to writte anymore… I want my original blogs back… :’( I just want Google to tell me why my blogs are blocked… Why… :’( I will do anything… I will raise anything from my blogs… Only to have them back…! :’( They don’t helped me… Please you do it, whoever you are… Or just write to me, to make me feel a little better… :’( I give you my e-mail… belldeblue@gmail.com
My friend, my blocked sites are: http://www.belldeblue.blogspot.com and http://www.bb-bell.blogspot.com . Please… Please, HELP ME! Please…
Demeur, if you open a different browser and get the same results, I’d say that would be a clear indication that the problem is on the server side, and not a cache issue. In other words, if you see the same issue in IE and Firefox, it’s most likely a server issue.
I agree with you on the maintenance too.
I’ll have to look into tweaking the msconfig…start just takes eons it seems.
As an SEO, I never think of my own computers laptop as being cached…when I hear the term I always think of the almighty Google…as in when was the last time Google Cached your site…
http://74.125.45.132/search?q=cache:wWlSl6siWRYJ:www.waynejohn.com/+waynejohn.com&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us
Is there any way to tell the difference between a cache problem and a server problem? Sometimes I get an error message after having just been to a site and returning a few seconds later. Plus it’s always nice to know when the geeks are going to do maintenance on the server.
Well, I don’t mean to make it sound easy, but if that encourages others to step outside their comfort zone, I’ll take it. All it really takes is persistence and a desire to learn more and more right?
I love how simple you make this sound!
I’ll try the net squirrel, thanks Wayne!
Yeah, you can clear your cookies. When you do though, expect to hit every site as if they don’t know about you. Most sites will keep identifying information (non-important stuff to anyone else normally, but useful to the site itself) to create a personalized experience “Hello blah”
If you want to quicken your startup, you might check out msconfig. msconfig allows you to specify what’s loaded on it’s startup tab. Also check out your startup folder in your start bar.
Be careful with msconfig though, there are things in there that could screw things up.
Check this out for walkthroughs: http://netsquirrel.com/msconfig/
I’ve just watched the video for internet explorer, and I like the feel of knowing what I’m doing…. Can I delete my cookies too?
Ooooh Btw, if you have any sage advice on quickening start-up I will do three cartwheels for you! I actually went through each running process and searched its function… ugh. They were all important….
Ahhhh. I was still wondering WHY I should clear my cache because SPEED is my middle name but MANZ cleared it up beautifully. Now, I STILL want speed, and will stick with speed, until something “comes up”.
There are so many little things that occur during the development process, you could base a whole blog around it. I’m sure there are plenty already though.
Yeah, I wish I had this a few years back too…
I wish I had this on hand to send to some clients over the past 5 years! You explained it really clearly.
In the past, I often had clients who had problems while we were in the process of developing their site. I would email them advising that the amendments had been made and are ready for review, only to get a reply email saying they are not seeing any changes. It took me a while to work out that they were seeing the cached information!! That was when I started to change the test site URL… and it made my life so much easier. If I had this back then, I would have been sending it to clients every time we started a new website