Review: X.Minutes.At

x.minutes.at is a useful tool that sets up a timer on a website to help you not spend an excessive amount of time on the Internet.

To set up and start the timer, simply time in x.minutes.at and replace the x with the number of minutes you would like the timer to start counting down from. So, for example, let us say you want to count down 5 minutes. Just type in 5.minutes.at into the browser address bar. This will send you to a site with a timer at the top of the screen and a google search engine for you to use to surf the web. Do what you need or want to do inside this webpage to keep the timer going. If you change the URL on this page, the timer will disappear. You can, however, open up a new tab to do your work while keeping the timer going in the previous tab. The alert message will cause you to revert to the previous tab, which means you will still get the alert that the time is up.

The timer bar that appears on the top of your screen has a few useful features of its own. First of all, on the left hand side of the bar, there is a google search engine that you can use to keep yourself inside the timer but still make searches. At the right hand side of the bar, you have the amount of time remaining, as well as a Pause button that you can press to pause the timer. There is also an addition side, as well as a subtraction sign. Click on the addition sign to add one minute to the timer. Click on the subtraction sign to subtract one minute from the timer.

Here are a few examples of the types of timers you can set up:
- News break: 5.minutes.at/news.bbc.co.uk
- Quick google search: 5.minutes.at/flights+to+honolulu
- Writing session: 45.minutes.at/simpletext.ws
- Just a timer (and google): 10.minutes.at

In essence, just type in the-number-of-minutes.minutes.at/website.

You can also set up a stopwatch. Just type in howmany.minutes.at/website to have the bar at the top start counting how long you spend on the website that you designated.

While this tool is great for most websites, it will not work with a few special sites that do not like frames. Such sites include google mail and google reader and facebook. However, as mentioned above, you can just set up the timer (e.g. 5.minutes.at), then open up a new tab to access the site that you wish to use.

Check out minutes.at for a few more links that you can use as bookmarklets.