Google Timer is gone (again)

[mdrzn]

https://www.google.com/search?q=3+minute+timer

[mdrzn]

Last time it was gone was 3 months ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32295674

And it took about 20 days for it to come back: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32555895

Here's two screenshots of my view:

[0] https://i.imgur.com/vcMf3am.png

[1] https://i.imgur.com/JeKuE9R.png

[stjohnswarts → mdrzn]

Works fine here. Only thing I can think of that I have set different than most is I have the "use my activity to help train google search" or whatever that setting is turned off. Basically I have everything I could ever find turned off for google searches to make it as generic as possible.

[tdrgabi → mdrzn]

searching for "3m timer" works maybe they changed the string

[mdrzn → tdrgabi]

Doesn't work even with different strings, different words, or different minutes amount.

[jaapenstaarrt]

https://www.google.com/search?q=1+minute+timer https://www.google.com/search?q=2+minute+timer https://www.google.com/search?q=3+minute+timer https://www.google.com/search?q=4+minute+timer https://www.google.com/search?q=5+minute+timer

Only the 3 minute time doesn't show

[_6vhu → jaapenstaarrt]

The 1 and 5 minute timers show for me, but they appear after video recommendations. For my display, this is just under my viewport.

[HPsquared → jaapenstaarrt]

"Fuzzy logic" strikes again.

[sph → HPsquared]

"Artificial Intelligence", when in reality it is un unintrospectable black box with always changing behaviour, and often not smarter than hand written heuristics.

We'll get another AI winter soon enough.

[jerpint → sph]

It’s always sunny in the metaverse

[lathiat → jaapenstaarrt]

For a long time I used Siri as “hey siri, timer, 3 minutes”.

This works for every time except 4 minute because it thinks you’re saying “timer for minutes” without a number.

Got fixed last year though and for some reason wasn’t reproducible for everyone. Not sure if an australian locale issue or something.

[i13e → jaapenstaarrt]

5 minute timer shows up for me but in a different section of the page

[mdrzn → jaapenstaarrt]

None of these shows for me.

[jjbinx007]

I just went to Bing and searched for "timer". Nothing. It's bizarre, if Microsoft wanted to make people use their search engine by choice (rather than force/trick them to set it as default) then why don't they hire the right people to tweak it to make it more appealing?

[nequo → jjbinx007]

DuckDuckGo has a timer.[1] It also uses Bing AFAIK. So in a roundabout way, Bing has a timer.

[1] https://duckduckgo.com/?q=3+minute+timer

[mminer237 → jjbinx007]

Brave and DDG are the only search engine that seem to have timer widgets.

[pgrote]

Works for me, but it is hidden under the Videos results below the fold on the page. Looks like they switched positioning.

It was in the normal position yesterday.

https://i.imgur.com/zSiVYBM.jpeg

[8jy89hui → pgrote]

That is very interesting. I wonder if it only shows up for some people. You posted your comment two minutes ago, and yet when I go to the page, the timer does not show up anywhere.

Useful information: I am not signed into Google and am running Firefox 105.0.3

[jfk13 → 8jy89hui]

Curious - works for me (in several different browsers).

(Note for any Googlers who happen to be watching: the full-screen timer display fails rather badly on my MacBook if the time is >= 10 minutes: the time wraps onto two lines and the second is halfway off-screen.)

[pgrote → 8jy89hui]

I am signed into google using chrome 107.0.5304.63

Brave Version 1.45.113 Chromium: 107.0.5304.62 not signed in and it is below the fold.

Firefox 106.0.2 (64-bit) not logged in and it is below the fold.

term to start the timer was "timer 1 hour".

[Crosseye_Jack]

"3 minute timer" Doesn't work for me. BUT "180 second timer" does. 2 minute / 4 minute also works. So might be bugged on just that one search term.

[tushar-r]

Works for me with "timer", "5 minute timer" and "10 minute timer"

"3 minute timer" doesn't work; just shows a link to a video for it.

[millzlane]

I've been using DDG since the first outage. Works almost the same.

[tyingq]

Often making a YouTube video made to be a timer the top choice. Where it probably shows you an ad before you can use the timer. Ugh.

[cabirum]

Why would anyone rely on an undocumented easter egg in a product that has nothing to do with timers?

[pmanu]

It works for me. I always use "set timer x minutes"

[neophyt3]

its there.. search for 'timer'

[theflyingelvis]

Works for me