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Recipes / Query an exact window, down to the minute

Query an exact window, down to the minute

/search in keyword mode. The parameters matter less than the reasoning behind them, so that is most of what is below.

The request

GET /search
  ?q=<subject>
  &from=20260729T140000
  &to=20260729T160000

Why these parameters

Both bounds accept a full timestamp, not just a date. For event studies — what was published in the two hours around an announcement — that precision is the whole exercise, and a whole-day window buries the signal in everything else that happened.

What comes back

Only articles published inside the window. Ordering by timestamp gives you the propagation sequence: who published first, and how long the rest took.

How this goes wrong

Forgetting that publication timestamps reflect when the publisher stamped the article, which is not always when it appeared, and is occasionally back-dated. For sub-hour analysis, treat the ordering as indicative rather than forensic.

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