Google removed their timer so I made one

By god this is sort of controversial. Google provides many free services that I use daily but there was one tool that ruled them all… the TIMER! Figure 1 shows the timer in all its former glory, so simple, so elegant and now so non-existent. That’s right, when I searched up the classic word “timer” into Google last week my heart wretched at its disappearance.

Figure 1: The free timer tool provided by Google when using their search engine.

I reluctantly clicked the next available website with a timer and was horrified at their over the top designs. Google did it right as it was simplistic, user friendly and perfectly functional.

I needed to do something about this

There I was sitting at my desk lost without my simple Google timer. I went to search for a native timer on my Macbook Pro and was stunned to find nothing too. Literally only a clock is available to use like a barbarian. I might as well start using a sundial to track my hours. Alright, maybe that is a little bit extreme but you get my point.

Then it struck me, I am a software engineer! Of course, all the years of honing my craft led up to this point. It was time to recreate the wheel in its most basic form.

So I made a timer

Now listen, I didn’t sit down and design a timer with a billion features. In software there is the concept of over-engineering and I didn’t want my timer to solve philosophical inquiry. It just needed to be SIMPLE. I thought about what I most liked about the Google timer:

As you typed the time it would automatically move to the next time increment (e.g. hours, minutes, seconds)
When finished typing you can hit enter and start the countdown.
While on another tab it updated the timer tab with the remaining time.
You were notified when the time was complete.
It looked simple and functioned simple.

That is all. Nothing more and nothing less.

I decided to go super basic and write it with HTML, CSS and Javascript. In hindsight I could have used Elm or any other great frontend framework but who really cares. I needed something that ticked and nothing else. If I have learnt anything during my years of programming it is this… I design and develop for the problem scope I have. For example, my timer could have a stopwatch feature which goes part and parcel with most timers, but I do not need or want a stopwatch feature. Again, I am not here to design a rocket ship, just a very basic timer. To go beyond this scope can lead to unnecessary tangents. Unless of course you are just having fun as there is no harm in that.

I did use tailwindcss along the way too as it is a lightweight CSS framework that makes designing smooth like a jazzy rhythm.

I present to you my basic timer

Link to Timer: https://www.timer.sanico.com.au

If you don’t want to click the link you can see the timer below in Figure 2. I have been using this timer every day since the Google timer disappeared and have happily resumed my life. I have hosted it on a server and bookmarked it on my web browser for easy access.

The new basic timer I developed in replacement of the Google timer. Figure 2: My basic timer I developed to replace the Google timer and solve my woes.

But it has flaws and could look so much better

But that is not the point. Yes, there is a nagging voice in my head saying “maybe add that or change this”… However, I only needed a timer that counted down. I use this every day now and have no issues with it. I may make some tweaks here and there but my main goal was achieved and I can continue programming new things.

Conclusion

There are two reasons I have shared this with you. First of all, I am happy to share my basic timer with anyone reading as it cured my wretched heart and may cure yours too. Secondly, I wanted to demonstrate that it is okay to share your projects even if they are not perfect. I am a highly capable software engineer but I do not need to make the Mona Lisa of timers to hold that reputation. Many may scrutinise my timer. Many may praise it. However, at the end of the day I had a problem that I needed solving and used my software skills to do that. Solving problems comes first and the extra decorations can come later.