Search operators or operators, in general, are great time-saving options compared to writing the whole prose-styled search query. They are direct & when used precisely, they always yield results. The keywords for these beginner & advanced search operators are short & related to the search query.
So we will look into what are these search operators & what is the work of google before: & after: search operators. We will start with knowing about operators
See Also: Is Google Search Worse? Many Seem To Agree.
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What are Operators?
Operators are special symbols or constructs which we build to perform specific functions. They may not perform these functions themselves & give commands to perform those functions.
What are Search Operators?
In the same way, search operators any combination of symbols, or characters programmed to perform a search process on queries. Here we are talking about the queries posted on search engines like Google.
Google has advanced search operators. There are search operators like site: which provide the result to the site mentioned (For example- site:google.com = will direct us to the website google.com). The operator like ‘weather:’ gives us the result about the weather of a specified place (For example- weather:Seattle = will direct us to the google search result page of the weather of Seattle, Washington).
See Also: Query Relaxation And Scoping As Part Of Semantic Search
Google Search Operators- Before: & After:
- Google search operators before: & after: conduct time-based query search operations. Such as, before: provides the result of a period or date preceding the one mentioned in the query, & after: provides the result succeeding the date mentioned in the query.
For example- the President of the USA before: 2017 = will yield results of all the presidents served before 2017
&, the President of the USA after: 2017 = will yield results of all the presidents served after 2017
- They do not work only by providing the date or year.
For example- before:2017 = will not yield any result & may suggest that there is a typo detected in your query.
&, after:2017 = will not yield any result either.
- These search operators only work if it considers your query will as complete. You must specify what you want to know before or after a given time stamp.
For example- fried food after:2000 = will show the articles written before 2000 or tropical rainforest after:2000= will show the documents on the tropical rainforest of the country you are in currently & dated after 2000
- You can use these search operators can in all kinds of formats. The date written in formats like dd/mm/yyyy, mm/dd/yyyy, and yyyy/mm/dd work will yield the same result.
For example- a query related to ‘weather of Seattle before:18/01/2022’, or the weather of Seattle before:01/18/2022, & weather of Seattle before:2022/01/18 = will work the same way & show a page full of different websites offering results related to weather of Seattle before the date 18th of January, 2022
- Dashes (-) & forward-slash (/) in the date format yield the same result.
For example- ‘weather of Seattle before:18/01/2022’ & ‘weather of Seattle before:18-01-2022’, will give the same result.