Google is testing the “before:” and “after:” commands, which allows users to restrict queries to specific dates.
Google tweeted an example of the function being used when searching for Avengers: Endgame articles.
The before: & after: commands return documents before & after a date. You must provide year month day dates or only a year. You can combine both. For example:
[avengers endgame before:2019]
[avengers endgame after:2019-04-01]
[avengers endgame after:2019-03-01 before:2019-03-05]
Users don’t even have to type in an entire date if they want to search before or after a particular year, and both slash and dash formats are valid.
The commands are still in their beta test phase, and Google says more improvements will arrive before the final versions roll out; these include changes to the date displays. Currently, the filtering tools show dates next to the links it returns, but as there’s no standard way for site owners to show publishing or republishing dates, these might not be accurate. Therefore, Google is looking at removing them. The exception is for news article results, which Google says have accurate publishing dates.
