The title is hyperbole.  Rather that being impossible to search at all, the problem is that &quot;the &#x27;before:YYYY&#x2F;MM&#x2F;DD&#x27; and &#x27;after:YYYY&#x2F;MM&#x2F;DD&#x27; terms have stopped working, and it also appears to no longer be possible to search by date.&quot;<p>That said, Google&#x27;s web interface to Usenet has always been garbage compared to the standalone news readers of even 20 years ago.  I&#x27;ve long wondered when the day would come that Google stopped seeing it worth their bother to maintain their Usenet archive.  Hopefully when that day comes they&#x27;ll donate it to a more capable institution.