diff --git a/README.rdoc b/README.rdoc
index 9e6e0d6993eb68ee9dcffbec865c1eb8265903ce..00e41e27ce72bfb1a4c611f987b561863bd477c0 100644
--- a/README.rdoc
+++ b/README.rdoc
@@ -97,8 +97,11 @@ If your model has +address+, +city+, +state+, and +country+ attributes you might
     [address, city, state, country].compact.join(', ')
   end
 
+Please see the code (<tt>lib/geocoder/active_record.rb</tt>) for more methods and detailed information about arguments (eg, working with kilometers).
 
-Please see the code for more methods and detailed information about arguments (eg, working with kilometers).
+You can also set the timeout used for connections to Google's geocoding service. The default is 3 seconds, but if you want to set it to 5 you could put the following in an initializer:
+
+  Geocoder::Configuration.timeout = 5
 
 
 == Reverse Geocoding
diff --git a/lib/geocoder.rb b/lib/geocoder.rb
index 0f1d77af50111fe1f0e23594207d1681dafe6890..2cd221ffdf7e758c3a04c6b8610a84d1f5d3951b 100644
--- a/lib/geocoder.rb
+++ b/lib/geocoder.rb
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+require "geocoder/configuration"
 require "geocoder/calculations"
 require "geocoder/lookup"
 require "geocoder/result"
diff --git a/lib/geocoder/configuration.rb b/lib/geocoder/configuration.rb
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..d10e1be85c60e6ff229dd3d4f3b7adc46160db1c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/geocoder/configuration.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+module Geocoder
+  class Configuration
+    cattr_accessor :timeout
+  end
+end
+
+Geocoder::Configuration.timeout = 3
+
diff --git a/lib/geocoder/lookup.rb b/lib/geocoder/lookup.rb
index 40e0654a66fcfa653f9b4aa4491efcc049efe7dd..443c5cc0d28339c725901bfcaa7ee61b49867819 100644
--- a/lib/geocoder/lookup.rb
+++ b/lib/geocoder/lookup.rb
@@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ module Geocoder
       url = query_url(query, reverse)
       begin
         resp = nil
-        timeout(3) do
+        timeout(Geocoder::Configuration.timeout) do
           Net::HTTP.get_response(URI.parse(url)).body
         end
       rescue SocketError, TimeoutError