New Google Search Commands: before: and after:

On April 9, 2019, Google’s official Twitter account announced two search commands: before: and after:. Add a year or an exact date after either operator to filter results.

How to use them

The syntax is simple: add before: or after: and a year or date to a query. You can use either operator alone or combine both.

韓國瑜 before:2017

韓國瑜 after:2018

韓國瑜 after:2018-11-1 before:2018-11-15

These operators work in ordinary Google Search and Google News.

Date details

• before:2018 returns results before 2018-01-01.
• after:2018 returns results after 2018-12-31.
• before:2019 after:2017 limits results to 2018.
• Hyphens and slashes are both accepted: before:2018-12-31 equals before:2018/12/31.
• Months and days may use one or two digits, such as before:2018-5-17 and before:2018-05-17.

Notes

Google News always displays a publication time, while ordinary Search shows one only when Google considers it useful. Google estimates dates in several ways, but the result is not guaranteed to be exact because pages can be edited and declared dates may differ from actual publication dates.

For more detail, see Google’s official explanation.