Google is introducing a significant change to Chrome's Back/Forward Cache (BFCache) behavior, allowing web pages to be stored in the cache, even if a webmaster specifies not to store a page in the browser's cache.
"bfcache is an in-memory cache that stores a complete snapshot of a page (including the JavaScript heap) as the user is navigating away," explains
Google's web.dev site.
"With the entire page in memory, the browser can quickly and easily restore it if the user decides to return."
Site admins can specify how their web pages are stored in a browser's cache using the "Cache-control:" header. One option is to use the "Cache-control: no-store" header, which prevents the website response from being stored in the browser.
However, browsers have not been storing webpages in bfcache if they use this header, causing performance issues when users return to those pages using the back and forward browser buttons.
