Strange Google Search bug temporarily breaks timer and stopwatch tools online

Googling commands like “Set a timer for 10 minutes”, or “stopwatch” used to pull up Google’s built-in quick tools for these sorts of things, but as of this past week, both have seemingly disappeared. It’s easy to forget how these conveniences positively impact our lives until they stop working, right?

According to Search Engine Roundtable who first reported on the issue, both tools have been offline for about a week now. Danny Sullivan, Google’s Public Liaison for Search replied to a user on Twitter who also brought it to his attention, stating that he and his team are actively working on a fix. However, so far, there’s been no progress on this front publicly, and users are still without the ability to track time via a simple Google Search.

I'll check on it

— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) July 21, 2022

At first, I thought that Google may have removed these tools because well, it’s in their M.O. to remove features without explanation hat people use and love, but seeing Danny also being caught by surprise by its sudden disappearance means that it’s most likely just an odd bug that has yet to be resolved.

While I personally don’t use these tools anymore, and instead opt for the stopwatch and timer tools that are built into the clock app on my phone, I feel for those of you who are affected. We’ll update this article once both are up and running again, so keep an eye out!