Enhancements to Time.gov: the National Web Clock for the United States

Andrew N. Novick and Samuel Ou

Abstract:	Since 1999, the official time for the United States has been presented with a graphical interface on the World Wide Web. Major improvements to the site, www.time.gov, will soon be implemented. The goal was to continue to display an animated clock with an estimated path delay from the source, but to improve upon the efficiency and functionality of the Web site. Switching the interface from the Java/Perl environments to using Flash and XML has improved the efficiency on the server side and increased ease of use for the variety of clients and firewall settings. Several options have been added, including an audio “tick”, 12 or 24-hour digital clock display as well as an animated clock face. International time zones with Daylight Saving Time corrections are also represented. This paper includes an explanation of how the site works, as well as traffic and load issues.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 39th Annual Precise Time and Time Interval Meeting November 27 - 29, 2007 Hyatt Regency Long Beach Long Beach, California
Pages:	187 - 194
Cite this article:	Novick, Andrew N., Ou, Samuel, "Enhancements to Time.gov: the National Web Clock for the United States," Proceedings of the 39th Annual Precise Time and Time Interval Meeting, Long Beach, California, November 2007, pp. 187-194.
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