Why It's Useful To Add A Countdown Timer To Your Website

What immediately comes to mind is the timer employed on the website for the movie "Julia and Julie". In this 2009 film, written and directed by Nora Ephron, Julie attempts to cook Julia Child's 524 recipes from "The Art of French Cooking" within 365 days. To track her progress she creates a website where she blogs to fans while the clock in the corner counts down the days. Needless to say, she succeeds in her quest and when the clock reaches zero the website disappears.

This type of computer program is designed to count down the days, hours, minutes and even seconds to a particular event. It can also set limits for the amount of time that viewers can remain on a website for blogging or shopping. Such a timer creates a sense of urgency in end-users, which forces them to keep messages short or to make a selection quickly, before they can talk themselves out of a purchase. For some online businesses, countdown timers are proving to be very advantageous.

Computer-based timers can also be used for everyday tasks. Timers can be used for purposes such as baking, watering the lawn, or limiting the amount of time children spend on computers or connected to the internet. Additionally, countdown timers can be used over and over again. The advantage of setting this up on a business website is that they can automatically start counting, beginning from the instant the site is accessed. In the case of a book or movie launch, adding a countdown timer until the big day can increase the hype factor significantly.

One use that has gained in popularity is with fan-based websites. These are used primarily to count down the days prior to the release of a movie or book or for some other major event. When entering the website for the new "Harry Potter" movie, for example, fans knew exactly how long they had to wait until the film was released for public viewing. This served to build excitement prior to release and helped to increase the first weekend's sales.

For those with family websites, it's not uncommon to find one of these timers counting down the days to a trip, anniversary, or other personal event that is important. A decorative banner or some kind of alarm is shown when the countdown is reached. This type of countdown is designed for single use, but there are also more serious or business-related countdowns designed for multiple users.

One of the most famous counters of this type is used in Times Square on New Year's Eve. It is used to signal when the ball will be lowered to usher in the New Year which begins the celebration for millions of Americans. Although these devices can be used in a variety of ways, some of the most fun is when they are used for events that inspire people.

As you can see, there are in fact many reasons why it's sometimes useful to add a countdown timer to your website!

Whether for personal use or business, a single use system or one that will be used many times, or just because you'd like to try one, countdown timers are easy to set up and a lot of fun to use.

Although there are downloadable software programs to create countdowns, the most modern countdown tools, such as those found on OnlineClock.net, are simple web-based timers that require nothing to download or install. All you have to do is set the time and date; the online countdown timer does the rest.

So please - just access a countdown web page, set up an online countdown today, and enjoy!