Question

How can I know how long a user has been holding the mouse button down (anywhere on a webpage)? I want to execute a function when the user held the mouse button for at least 2-3 seconds (preferably cancelling the mouse down in the process). Is this possible?

Answer 1

Here you go:

$(window).mousedown(function(e) {
    clearTimeout(this.downTimer);
    this.downTimer = setTimeout(function() {
        // do your thing 
    }, 2000);
}).mouseup(function(e) {
    clearTimeout(this.downTimer);
});

Live demo: http://jsfiddle.net/simevidas/Pe9sq/2/