After a brief absence, it looks like Google has reinstated the time operator in its search engine. In other words, you can search for "time kingston," or "time in kingston" and find out what time it is in Kingston, Jamaica.

Previously, you'd get a little clock and the time for the location you were most likely search for. But as you can see from the screenshot, Google's spruced up its offering a bit and offers you multiple results for ambiguous searches. A more precise search will bring up one result.

Of course, Google's not the only search engine that offers a time feature. Search for "time in kingston" using Ask and you'll get the local time in Jamaica as well as the current weather conditions. No mention of Kingston, Washington though. Yahoo! shows you the time in Kingston, Australia. Windows Live Search just returns search results. Right now we're going to crown Google the winner since it gives you the best chances of getting the result you were looking for with a rather imprecise term. And as far as we're concerned, that's exactly how search should work.