Google Search’s built-in timer has disappeared and no one’s saying why

Image: Google

One of the most convenient ways to set a timer was to simply search for it on the internet. You would get a ten minute timer if you punched in a query like "10 minute timer" Reports began to emerge last month that this feature had vanished from the search engine. There was a missing timer on July 20th and the first to cover it was SEORound Table.

Although there are no shortage of timers on the web, there is a built-in version on the internet. When you need to count up rather than down, there was a stopwatch built into the samewidget. The feature has been in existence for almost 10 years.

We're still checking on it.

— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) July 27, 2022

The removal of the feature may have been caused by an accidental bug, but it is still not officially acknowledged by the company. Danny Sullivan said he would look into the issue on July 21st and the team was still checking on it a week later. It may be proving difficult to squash if it is a bug. A person from the company did not reply immediately.

It would be odd for the company to remove the feature since it has spent a lot of time building more features into its search results page. Everything from rich snippets that attempt to answer your search query directly, to a dedicated box for news stories, and even a built-in price comparison tool for airplane flights have been added to the list of hyperlinks. None of these seem to be leaving.

The built-in metronome is still alive and well.