
Google timer - bugsbunny4341
https://www.google.com/#q=timer+for+10+seconds
======
Lewton
Yet again I am reminded that my google is not necessarily the same as 'your'
google

Just like how "define: something" doesn't show a dictionary definiton for me
anymore, a functionality i used all the time. And now can't be sure whether
was actually removed, or just removed for me!

~~~
aeon10
quick tip : google.com/ncr for no country redirect.

~~~
Spittie
Never knew it, thanks! You don't know how many times I struggled with getting
good result, because I was searching for something in English and Google keep
redirecting me to my country's edition (and thus searching on webpages from my
country/with my language).

~~~
aestra
When I was overseas, I just used google.us, which redirects to google.com,
since I only searched in English, I didn't speak the language of the country I
was living in.

------
marcamillion
This totally freaked me out.

I clicked the link to be opened in a new tab - and continued what I was doing.

I heard that beeping sound, and was completely baffled where it was coming
from (didn't sound like it was coming from the speakers).

You should have seen me picking up papers on my desk listening to them. I
listened to every potential port on my phone to see if it was giving off this
sound.

I felt like I was going crazy while I was doing it, but I just couldn't figure
out the source of the sound. Thinking back, if a camera was in my office, that
woulda been hella funny to watch.

~~~
wahsd
Typical Google. Uninformative, trite, bland, uninspired user experience.
That's the best auditory indicator they could find? The following may not be a
popular statement here, but it seems Google is still overrun by engineers that
are humanoid-challenged. With all due respect to engineers, engineers are not
human readable.

~~~
marcamillion
Pretty sure painting with a broad brush is one of the quicker ways for your
opinion to be ignored.

#justsaying

------
martin-adams
Interesting side effect. There's this web site: [http://www.online-
stopwatch.com/timer/1hour/](http://www.online-stopwatch.com/timer/1hour/)

which comes up top of the google search results for "timer for 1 hour" for me.
Now there is absolutely no way they can compete with Google's own offering
from an SEO perspective.

While this example is trivial to some extent, does it set a precedent that
while you can advertise and compete with Google, they can always have the
unfair advantage at being top of the list.

~~~
ok_craig
Lesson: don't put to much stock into a product that can be replaced by a few
lines of code on a search result page.

~~~
martin-adams
That's exactly my point. What if it wasn't a few lines of code, but something
with a hefty investment in, then Google comes in with their own and just puts
them top of the list because they can. Users don't get the choice because
Google prioritise their own.

~~~
dragonwriter
> That's exactly my point. What if it wasn't a few lines of code, but
> something with a hefty investment in, then Google comes in with their own
> and just puts them top of the list because they can. Users don't get the
> choice because Google prioritise their own.

Even with the google thing that does the function at the _top_ , users have
the choice. If it was a "I'm Feeling Lucky" style redirect (but always to a
Google service with no search results page) whenever the query fit a format
that keyed a Google-provided service, then the user wouldn't have the choice,
but giving you a thing that provides what you think you want _as well as_
links to other pages that might either do what you want or have the
information you want doesn't deny you the choice of using those other pages
instead of Google's tool.

------
unicornporn
Nothing happens at that page for me. Could the reason be that I'm redirected
to google.se (which does not have this feature, yet)?

~~~
batiudrami
It showed for me in Chrome, but not in Firefox. The same with Google's new
flat icon/grid services homepage, actually.

~~~
namenotrequired
It didn't work for me on Epic, but it did in Firefox.

------
thomasd
Google probably review their top searches periodically to determine utility
related keywords and custom fit solutions to them.

It seems that if they continue to do things this way, sooner or later, Google
is likely to replace thousands of utility websites.

This seems like a change in their philosophy from sending users to other
websites in as little time as possible, to using Google as a portal.

Interestingly, this change in philosophy by Yahoo from a search engine to a
portal was what made Yahoo lose out to Google.

~~~
jfoster
Except that this is a very different approach to being a portal.

Yahoo filled their front-page with items that wouldn't be relevant except for
some tiny percentage of the time, such that even if the front page had what
you were looking for, it was like a needle in a haystack. Google's approach
here is only revealing the portal functionality in response to a specific
request for it. It won't kill them, and may even be a competitive advantage
for them over any competitor search engine that has superior ranking
algorithms.

------
numair
If you want to break it, search for "timer for 23 hours 59 minutes 60 seconds"
... For some reason the code seems to be configured to max out at 24 hours. I
am too busy dealing with my own broken JavaScript code to take a look, but
maybe someone here can view source and figure out why they made that decision?

~~~
basicallydan
I'm guessing they decided they had to put a limit somewhere to ensure nothing
broke, and decided arbitrarily on that.

~~~
numair
Well, you can set the timer to 99 hours, 59 minutes, 59 seconds if you type in
the values, so it doesn't seem to make sense that 23:59:60 would break it. I'm
really curious as to why that happens.

~~~
perucoder
it looks like some default limits are in place for this. Here's what I found:

Max for seconds: 999 Max for minutes: 999 Max for hours: 23

------
spuz
What am I supposed to be seeing? There is no special behaviour when I do this
search.

------
jaggederest
A script I use for this occasionally:

    
    
      #!/usr/bin/env ruby
      done = Time.now + ARGV[0].to_i
      while(true) do
        sleep(10)
        `say "Time's up!"` if Time.now > done
      end
    

Or the alarm clock version:

    
    
      #!/usr/bin/env ruby
      require 'time'
      done = Time.parse(ARGV[0])
      while(true) do
        sleep(10)
        `say "Time's up!"` if Time.now > done
      end

~~~
bodyfour
My alarm clock 15 years ago was:

    
    
        $ sleep 28800; while :; do cat /etc/termcap; done > /dev/audio
    

These days /etc/termcap is disappearing from UNIX machines, but back then it
was always available. I found it had just the right amount of structure to
make a really annoying noise.

~~~
paulnechifor
My occasional alarm clock is:

    
    
        $ sleep 8h; mpg123 <something>/pandemonic_hyperblast.mp3
    

There is no way to fail to wake up with this song
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5Den-
CQ6jk](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5Den-CQ6jk) .

~~~
noptic
I always used my stereos build in timer and a death metal CD for the same
effect :)

But now my stereo and my CDs gather dust and I (and my neighbours) do not miss
them.

------
waterlion
TAKE OUT YOUR HEADPHONES

(I'm shouting both because it's very important advice and because I'm now
deaf)

~~~
hobs
Interestingly I have no sound when the timer runs to zero, and no blip on the
windows sound levels.

------
miguelrochefort
Pomodoro Bookmarklet (powered by Google timer):

1\. Create new bookmarklet

2\. Name: Pomodoro

3\. URL:
javascript:window.open("[https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=cr#q="+((document.title.index...](https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=cr#q="+\(\(document.title.indexOf\("25"\)>-1))?"":"2")+"5+minute+timer&safe=off",'_self');

4\. Save

Click on the bookmarklet to toggle between "Work" and "Break" mode.

~~~
potomak
Or you can use Tomatoes[1] to track also your working time.

[1] [http://tomato.es](http://tomato.es)

------
OrwellianChild
Also works with

    
    
      timer <time of day>
    

E.g. timer 7am

Original Reddit link that started it all:
[http://www.reddit.com/r/YouShouldKnow/comments/1j3pnv/ysk_us...](http://www.reddit.com/r/YouShouldKnow/comments/1j3pnv/ysk_use_google_as_a_stopwatch_with_its_set_timer/)

------
MattBearman
I don't get anything special - Google Chrome on OSX

------
kylec
It's not perfect though, this link will start a timer for 1 minute, not 24
hours and 1 minute:

[https://www.google.com/#q=timer+23+hours+61+minutes](https://www.google.com/#q=timer+23+hours+61+minutes)

~~~
piyush_soni
Huh. Too bad they didn't test it even to this basic level.

------
rane
Noticed that Alfred's default search URL for Google wouldn't work with the
timer:
[http://www.google.com/search?q=set+timer+for+10+seconds](http://www.google.com/search?q=set+timer+for+10+seconds)

It has to be
[https://www.google.com/#q=timer+for+10+seconds](https://www.google.com/#q=timer+for+10+seconds)
so I made a custom search URL and can now use the timer through Alfred.

~~~
adamc
No, the first url worked for the timer fine for me.

------
waster
Actually this seems ridiculously convenient, if I'm sitting at my computer
(which I almost always am). Easier than picking up my phone and setting a
timer, even.

------
k-mcgrady
Doesn't work for me in Safari 6.1 or latest Chrome. (Strangely worked on
google.co.uk but doesn't work on .com)

------
27182818284
Works better than timer / alert functionality of Google Now which is horribly
broken. (At first I thought it was just rounding errors, with 25 minutes being
set to 24 minutes, but I can't explain a 3 minute difference easily with
rounding errors, which has happened to me. )

------
jsulak
Can't resist mentioning my small timer site from several years ago:
[http://clockster.net](http://clockster.net). Takes RESTful urls, like
[http://clockster.net/3min30s](http://clockster.net/3min30s).

------
b4c0n
I built something for this exact purpose a few weeks ago. Surprisingly, I
would put it's functionality in one of the top 10 things I use now.

[http://errk.se/remind_me_after/](http://errk.se/remind_me_after/)

------
drakaal
Seems to be limited to 1 second short of 1 day. What good is that? I want a
timer that counts down to my favorite console launch. (I am not saying which
one because I figure if I choose the wrong console I won't get any upvotes)

------
billwashere
Yay, I broke it :-)

[https://www.google.com.au/?q=timer+for+23+hours+59+minutes+6...](https://www.google.com.au/?q=timer+for+23+hours+59+minutes+60+seconds#q=timer+for+23+hours+59+minutes+60+seconds)

~~~
Egidius
Maximum appears to be one day. Yet this works anyway:

[https://www.google.nl/?q=timer+for+23+hr+120+min+59+secs#q=t...](https://www.google.nl/?q=timer+for+23+hr+120+min+59+secs#q=timer+for+23+hr+120+min+59+secs)

------
kip_
Announced over 6 weeks ago at
[http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2013/08/google-
timer.html](http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2013/08/google-timer.html)

------
pax
I had to reset all my _.google._ cookies to work logged with the Google user
it works, but when I sign in with the secondary google apps for domains user
it stops working for some reason

------
domness
Fancy, however, I still prefer things like
[http://e.ggtimer.com/](http://e.ggtimer.com/) as it allows other functions
such as a Pomodoro timer.

~~~
miguelrochefort
You can also use this bookmarklet:

javascript:window.open("[https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=cr#q="+((document.title.index...](https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=cr#q="+\(\(document.title.index...\)?"":"2"\)+"5+minute+timer&safe=off",'_self'\);)

------
bedhead
This is what they're working on while shutting down Reader? Guh. And yes, I
will make a similar comment every time they roll out some inconsequential new
product or feature.

------
lectrick
Here's your poached egg timer...

[https://www.google.com/#q=timer+for+3+minutes+30+seconds](https://www.google.com/#q=timer+for+3+minutes+30+seconds)

------
jpkeisala
[http://www.google.com/help/features.html](http://www.google.com/help/features.html)

------
Zweihander
For the Google QA person who is inevitably reading this: "timer for 23 hours
and 59 minutes and 60 seconds"

------
epaga
For those of us Europeans where this doesn't work: it works on Incognito Mode
in Chrome.

~~~
aestra
I'm in the United States and it doesn't work for me, not even in Incognito
Mode in Chrome. I feel like I'm really missing out on the party.

------
ccozan
you can combine this with the voice option from search, nice way to speak out
loud and have this timer set. I've set up a custom shortcut for triggering
voice search ( besides the Ctrl+Shift+.) and works like a charm.

------
oakaz
just wrote something similar in 60 lines of JavaScript:
[http://requirebin.com/embed?gist=6668018](http://requirebin.com/embed?gist=6668018)

------
evadne
I really miss per-application volume control (like in Windows).

------
ozh
Yet another case of Google inconsistencies.

------
sidcool
Doesn't work on Chrome for Android

------
wjk
Doesnt work in my Nightly 27.0a1

------
Antiquarian
No fortnight support?

------
peachlover
doesn't work as expected in Bulgaria

