Google Search’s built-in timer has disappeared and nobody’s saying why

Until lately, one of the handy methods to set a timer was to easily seek for one on Google. Punch in a question like “10 minute timer” and, hey presto, you’d get a ten minute timer. But final month, reviews began to emerge that this function had disappeared from Google with out warning. SEORoundTable was among the first to cowl the lacking timer on July twentieth, citing tweets from round July 18th.

Although there are not any scarcity of timers elsewhere on the internet (or supplied as inventory apps on iOS and Android) Google’s built-in model was a easy, accessible various. And, in addition to the timer, there was additionally a stopwatch function constructed into the identical widget for when you might want to depend up quite than down. The function dates again nearly a decade, having been introduced in 2013.

Google is but to formally acknowledge the elimination of the function, so it could be the case that an unintended bug has brought on it to vanish. Google’s public search liaison Danny Sullivan first mentioned he’d look into the difficulty on July 21st, and nearly every week in a while July twenty seventh mentioned the crew was “still checking on it.” If its disappearance is a bug, then it’s one which may be proving onerous to squash. A spokesperson from Google didn’t instantly return The Verge’s request for remark.

Intentionally eradicating the function can be a wierd transfer for Google, given it’s spent a lot of the final decade constructing extra options natively into its search outcomes web page. What began out as a easy record of hyperlinks now embrace every little thing from wealthy snippets that try to reply your search question instantly, to a devoted field for information tales, and much more particular options like a built-in value comparability device for airplane flights. None of those look like going anyplace.

And, in case you’re questioning, Google Search’s built-in metronome continues to be alive and ticking, thank goodness.