14 DAY TRIAL // Google has been focusing on image search more in recent months and now it's adding another small feature that may end up doing quite a bit of difference. There is now a new filter option for Image Search, enabling you to restrict results to just images from the past week.
That may not seem like much, but it makes a huge difference if you're looking for something that happened recently, but you still have to use a generic term.
"Back in April, we introduced Google Images with date annotations, a change that added dates on image thumbnails to help you see which images are most recent," James Synge, software engineer at Google Images, wrote.
"Now, you can use the new date filter in the left-hand set of tools to narrow your search to just images from the previous week," he announced.
Google Image search has gotten better over the years, but it is only recently that Google started doubling down on making some significant improvements.
One big change has been the focus on more recent content. The search index is fresher and updated more frequently. New images are also labeled as such in the search results, making them easier to pick up.
But the new feature takes it one step further, Google is now confident enough in its image search index that it believes it can get you relevant results from images no older than a week.
"For example, if you search for [space shuttle], you'll see images for shuttle launches throughout the years," Synge provides a great example of the type of search benefiting from the change.
"If you want to see just recent images, like ones of Atlantis, the most recent NASA shuttle to launch, you can click 'Past week' in the left-hand panel of tools to see images from the last seven days," he explained.