from Hacker News

Google timer

by bugsbunny4341 on 9/23/13, 7:46 AM with 154 comments

  • by marcamillion on 9/23/13, 11:10 AM

    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.

  • by martin-adams on 9/23/13, 8:06 AM

    Interesting side effect. There's this web site: 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.

  • by Lewton on 9/23/13, 9:18 AM

    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!

  • by unicornporn on 9/23/13, 8:00 AM

    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)?
  • by thomasd on 9/23/13, 8:02 AM

    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.

  • by numair on 9/23/13, 8:05 AM

    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?
  • by spuz on 9/23/13, 9:09 AM

    What am I supposed to be seeing? There is no special behaviour when I do this search.
  • by jaggederest on 9/23/13, 8:03 AM

    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
  • by waterlion on 9/23/13, 8:07 AM

    TAKE OUT YOUR HEADPHONES

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

  • by miguelrochefort on 9/23/13, 12:41 PM

    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...)?"":"2")+"5+minute+timer&safe=off",'_self');

    4. Save

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

  • by OrwellianChild on 9/23/13, 8:13 AM

    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...

  • by MattBearman on 9/23/13, 9:21 AM

    I don't get anything special - Google Chrome on OSX
  • by kylec on 9/23/13, 2:05 PM

    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

  • by rane on 9/23/13, 12:26 PM

    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

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

  • by waster on 9/23/13, 7:50 AM

    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.
  • by k-mcgrady on 9/23/13, 8:57 AM

    Doesn't work for me in Safari 6.1 or latest Chrome. (Strangely worked on google.co.uk but doesn't work on .com)
  • by 27182818284 on 9/23/13, 2:52 PM

    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. )
  • by jsulak on 9/23/13, 1:13 PM

    Can't resist mentioning my small timer site from several years ago: http://clockster.net. Takes RESTful urls, like http://clockster.net/3min30s.
  • by b4c0n on 9/23/13, 8:16 AM

    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/

  • by drakaal on 9/23/13, 8:55 AM

    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)
  • by billwashere on 9/23/13, 10:31 AM

  • by kip_ on 9/23/13, 5:09 PM

  • by pax on 9/23/13, 7:21 PM

    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
  • by domness on 9/23/13, 10:25 AM

    Fancy, however, I still prefer things like http://e.ggtimer.com/ as it allows other functions such as a Pomodoro timer.
  • by bedhead on 9/23/13, 8:47 PM

    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.
  • by lectrick on 9/23/13, 12:55 PM

  • by jpkeisala on 9/23/13, 9:44 AM

  • by Zweihander on 9/23/13, 10:13 PM

    For the Google QA person who is inevitably reading this: "timer for 23 hours and 59 minutes and 60 seconds"
  • by epaga on 9/23/13, 11:56 AM

    For those of us Europeans where this doesn't work: it works on Incognito Mode in Chrome.
  • by ccozan on 9/23/13, 9:26 AM

    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.
  • by oakaz on 9/23/13, 9:31 AM

    just wrote something similar in 60 lines of JavaScript: http://requirebin.com/embed?gist=6668018
  • by evadne on 9/23/13, 12:42 PM

    I really miss per-application volume control (like in Windows).
  • by ozh on 9/23/13, 2:38 PM

    Yet another case of Google inconsistencies.
  • by sidcool on 9/23/13, 5:07 PM

    Doesn't work on Chrome for Android
  • by wjk on 9/23/13, 9:00 AM

    Doesnt work in my Nightly 27.0a1
  • by Antiquarian on 9/23/13, 4:51 PM

    No fortnight support?
  • by peachlover on 9/23/13, 2:27 PM

    doesn't work as expected in Bulgaria