diff --git a/lib/default.php b/lib/default.php
index 95366e0b32..d4ef045ea5 100644
--- a/lib/default.php
+++ b/lib/default.php
@@ -226,4 +226,6 @@ $default =
         array('contentlimit' => null),
         'location' =>
         array('namespace' => 1), // 1 = geonames, 2 = Yahoo Where on Earth
+        'omb' =>
+        array('timeout' => 5), // HTTP request timeout in seconds when contacting remote hosts for OMB updates
         );
diff --git a/lib/omb.php b/lib/omb.php
index e2a6d9f3f5..0f38a49369 100644
--- a/lib/omb.php
+++ b/lib/omb.php
@@ -167,6 +167,7 @@ class StatusNet_OMB_Service_Consumer extends OMB_Service_Consumer {
         $this->datastore      = omb_oauth_datastore();
         $this->oauth_consumer = omb_oauth_consumer();
         $this->fetcher        = Auth_Yadis_Yadis::getHTTPFetcher();
+        $this->fetcher->timeout = intval(common_config('omb', 'timeout'));
     }
 
 }