Have been experimenting with ask.com, and the advanced search feature of Google. Is it surprising or not that neither have a good technique for searching by date?

I couldn’t find anything in ask.com. There is a feature in the advanced search of Google which enables the user to check for content updated in the past 3 months, past 6 months and past year. But not to search for 2000, or 2004.

As the amount of content continues to grow exponentially, wouldn’t it be worth beginning to sort this out now?