— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) April 9, 2019
To get search results before a given date, add “before:YYYY-MM-DD” to your search query. For example, searching “the best donuts in Boston before:2008-01-01” will yield content from 2007 and earlier.
To get results after a given date, add “after:YYYY-MM-DD” at the end of your search. For example, searching “top 10 horror movies after:2018-12-31” will provide you with results that were published in 2019 and onward.
You can combine both commands to search within a date range. For example, searching “one-hit wonders after:1999-12-31 before:2001-01-01” will yield results from the year 2000.
Users can also use dashes instead of slashes as well as single digits for months and days, or filter by just the year, making “before:2001” equivalent to “before:2001-01-01.”
Search by date has existed for more than a decade. The search-by-date filter was introduced in 2009. From its debut until just recently, the feature was only accessible from the Tools tab of the search interface.
Want to combine these command with other search operators to boost your search skills? Check out the Search Engine Land guide to advanced search operators here.