diff --git a/googleapiclient/http.py b/googleapiclient/http.py
index 29aef0e..221b1c2 100644
--- a/googleapiclient/http.py
+++ b/googleapiclient/http.py
@@ -163,10 +163,14 @@
     # Retry on SSL errors and socket timeout errors.
     except _ssl_SSLError as ssl_error:
       exception = ssl_error
+    except socket.timeout as socket_timeout:
+      # It's important that this be before socket.error as it's a subclass
+      # socket.timeout has no errorcode
+      exception = socket_timeout
     except socket.error as socket_error:
       # errno's contents differ by platform, so we have to match by name.
-      if socket.errno.errorcode.get(socket_error.errno) not in (
-          'WSAETIMEDOUT', 'ETIMEDOUT', 'EPIPE', 'ECONNABORTED', ):
+      if socket.errno.errorcode.get(socket_error.errno) not in {
+        'WSAETIMEDOUT', 'ETIMEDOUT', 'EPIPE', 'ECONNABORTED'}:
         raise
       exception = socket_error
 
diff --git a/tests/test_http.py b/tests/test_http.py
index f337401..f6beff7 100644
--- a/tests/test_http.py
+++ b/tests/test_http.py
@@ -125,24 +125,26 @@
       return httplib2.Response(self.success_json), self.success_data
     else:
       self.num_errors -= 1
-      if self.num_errors == 1:
+      if self.num_errors == 1:  # initial == 2
         raise ssl.SSLError()
-      else:
-        if PY3:
-          ex = TimeoutError()
-        else:
-          ex = socket.error()
+      else:  # initial != 2
         if self.num_errors == 2:
-          #first try a broken pipe error (#218)
+          # first try a broken pipe error (#218)
+          ex = socket.error()
           ex.errno = socket.errno.EPIPE
         else:
           # Initialize the timeout error code to the platform's error code.
           try:
             # For Windows:
+            ex = socket.error()
             ex.errno = socket.errno.WSAETIMEDOUT
           except AttributeError:
             # For Linux/Mac:
-            ex.errno = socket.errno.ETIMEDOUT
+            if PY3:
+              ex = socket.timeout()
+            else:
+              ex = socket.error()
+              ex.errno = socket.errno.ETIMEDOUT
         # Now raise the correct error.
         raise ex