How to Search Google by Date (using Google Date Filters) – 3 Key Tips!

Search Google By Date – Article Summary

Are you trying to search Google for specific topics organized by DATE – such as search results for the last day, month, or year? If so, this article and video can help you. I’ll show you…

  1. How to use the TOOLS menu to FILTER Google search so that you only see search results from the past year, past month, past day, even past hour.
  2. How to filter Google search results for a CUSTOM Date Range.
  3. How to SORT the Google search results BY DATE (instead of relevance). What this means is that you can sort results by oldest to newest or newest to oldest instead of just seeing the results organized by Google’s algorithm.  
  4. And more. 


Search Google By Date

Editor’s Notes:

  1. This article is part of a series of tips about how to use various Google Products to make life easier.
  2. This particular tip applies to Google Search via the full desktop version of Chrome. Unfortunately Google Mobile doesn’t offer the “Tools” drop-down feature any longer – thanks for Brian Burke for pointing this out to the group. 

Search Google by Date – Tips & Screenshots

In this section, we’ll show you screenshots for how to set up a FILTER so that you can search Google by date.

This is the step-by-step process on how to get Google’s search results to show by the most recent Year, Month, Week, Day and past hour. It also works if you want to filter Google’s search results by custom dates too.

How to FILTER Google Search Results by Date

  1. Enter you search terms in Google as you normally do.
  2. Click on the TOOLS menu (to the right of Settings on the Search Menu under the Google Search Bar) to begin the Search Google by Date filtering process.
  3. Click on the ANY TIME drop down menu and instead choose to FILTER Google Search by latest year, month, week, 24 hours, or hour (OR) choose “Custom Range” and enter your own date range.
  4. Enjoy your filtered results.

Filter Google by Date

How to SORT Google’s Search Result by Date

Another useful technique that allows you to search Google by date is to use the SORT feature. This allows you to bypass Google’s search results algorithm so that you can see the MOST CURRENT NEWS about your topic. 

Here’s how:

  1. First you have to set up a search by date range – i.e. you have to use the Tools Menu and pick a TIME range as we did above (search by hour, day, week, month, year, or custom).
  2. After you do this a new drop down filter will appear. The default setting is ‘sort by relevance’ as you can see in the first picture below.
  3. You want to click on the ‘sort by relevance’ and choose the ‘sorted by date’ option from the drop box – as you can see in second picture below…

Notice the “Sort by Relevance” selection

Notice the ‘sorted by date’ option is selected

How to Search Google by Date – The Video

Wanna see all this in video tutorial form? We got you covered there too. 

https://youtu.be/Dn-4f3IAP6w

Search Google by Date – Conclusion

Did this article teach you what you wanted to know about how to search Google by Date? 

Do you have another method that works better? If so, please let me know. 

Additionally if you tried this method and it did NOT help you search Google by date please let me know so we can keep this article updated and all learn together. 

Thanks and Happy Searching!

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Mike, That Helpful Dad

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23 thoughts on “How to Search Google by Date (using Google Date Filters) – 3 Key Tips!”

    • Lots of people don’t know about this yet because Google makes it unnecessarily hard to find this feature. Glad to help

      Reply
  1. I used to have something called Google Year, that automatically gave me results only for the last year. Any idea how to get that back, without having to designate within the last year each time I search?

    Reply
    • How about using the Tools drop down and then choosing Custom Date Range? Would that work for you?

      Reply
  2. Thank you bless you. You just saved me nights worth of work

    Reply
    • Hi, Biff, I just checked it again today on Chrome and it’s still there and still works for me. Tools-Anytime-Custom Range. Perhaps try again on your end?

      Reply
  3. There is NO Tools drop-down on Google Mobile anymore.

    Reply
    • Thanks for noticing this change re Google Mobile, Brian. I have updated the post and credited you as the source of this news. God bless

      Reply
  4. When I sort by past week or past month I’ve always had the ability to sort my results by newest or oldest, but now only have “All Results” or Verbatim” How can I get that option back?

    Reply
    • I’m sorry to say that I don’t know the answer. Google has recently changed and they’ve taken away the sort by relevance vs date new/old features. It’s frustrating! I hope it changes back because the loss of that ability is a big deal in academic/research searches. Sorry, my friend.

      Reply
  5. Can there be a generic URL to open such a google page which has these filters when the page loads?

    Reply
    • That’s an interesting question, Gaurav, but alas I don’t know the answer to it.

      Reply
  6. How can I show Updated Date instead of Publish date in search results?

    Reply
    • That’s a great question, Yamin, and not something I’ve looked into before. I just checked on G-search and don’t see that as an option. It would be nice to have though.

      Reply
  7. the drop down menu “sort by relevance” does not exist. I use desktop version

    Reply
    • Sadly Google has changed their options in the last couple years. this is one of the casualties.

      Reply
  8. Good tool. But I’m looking for a # of hits on a certain date. I accomplished the range as you instructed. But there’s no Hits # at the top left of page as there is without the range spec. Is that hidden also?

    Reply
    • that’s a great question., Shree. I’ve never done the research on number of hits but it would be interesting to know it. Sadly I suspect that’s one of MANY things Google keeps purposefully hidden from us.

      Reply

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