History of Hacker News Search from 2007 to 2024
The evolution of HackerNews search from 2007 to 2024 includes three generations, with early limitations, the rise of HNSearch, and Algolia's improvements, leading to ongoing innovations with new technologies.
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The history of HackerNews (HN) search has evolved through three main generations from 2007 to 2024. The first generation began in 2007 with various early attempts at creating search functionalities, including projects by Jason Yan, Keven Lin, and Mike Cheng. These early search engines were often limited in features and faced challenges in maintaining their services. The second generation, from 2011 to 2014, saw the launch of HNSearch, powered by Octopart and ThriftDB, which gained popularity for its user-friendly interface and third-party applications built on its API. However, it was eventually replaced by the third generation, which began in 2014 with Algolia's search engine. Algolia introduced significant improvements in speed and accuracy, responding to community feedback and enhancing indexing capabilities. As of 2024, new search engines continue to emerge, utilizing advanced technologies like semantic search and AI embeddings, indicating ongoing innovation in the HN search landscape. Trieve, a new search engine for HackerNews, is set to launch soon, aiming to incorporate additional features based on the historical context of HN search.
- The evolution of HackerNews search spans three generations from 2007 to 2024.
- Early search engines faced limitations and maintenance challenges.
- HNSearch gained popularity in its era but was eventually replaced by Algolia.
- Algolia improved search speed and accuracy through community feedback.
- New search engines are emerging, utilizing advanced technologies like AI and semantic search.
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- Users express gratitude for Algolia's effective search capabilities and its impact on their experience.
- Several commenters suggest features they would like to see, such as negative search, user-specific searches, and improved date-bounding interfaces.
- There is curiosity about the future of Algolia's search and its association with other services like Trieve.
- Some users advocate for a minimalist approach, arguing against adding too many features to maintain the site's simplicity.
- Discussions include the desire to search flagged or dead posts, indicating a need for access to previously valuable content.
15 commentsEg for this thread the most recent comments can be found here: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...
I built an Observable notebook to save me from having to manually construct those searches here: https://observablehq.com/@simonw/hacker-news-homepage
Idk if it can be replaced (i guess i could do with semantic search + content crawling to start?), but even if it is replaced, Algolia will always have a special place in my heart for doing such a great job for free. thank you whoever worked on it (Algolians - is there a behind the scenes writeup somewhere?)
- Negative search / exclusion: the ability to exclude terms from a search, as in "procfs -linux", which would look for any references to "procfs" which did not also reference "linux".
Edit: This exists, see dang's reply below.
- Replies to a specific user, e.g., "by:dredmorbius inreplyto:skeptrune <search terms>". I'm often looking for a specific context of my own previous comments.
- An improved date-bounding interface. If there's one thing that frustrates me about Algolia's interface, it's the GUI (and syntax) for defining dates. It's cumbersome, and at least on my browser, the dates are generally hard to read or invisible. Going back years is especially cumbersome.
I'll add: Algolia has been massively useful, and the fact that I can search HN, especially for my own content, has been a huge part of the value of the site, and is worlds ahead of other online platforms. (Mastodon / the Fediverse is catching up here, Diaspora*'s lack of search was among my main frustrations with the site and explains my absence there after more than a decade of participation.)
Commit here - https://github.com/devflowinc/trieve-website/commit/ab563475...
Links: - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2619736
- https://web.archive.org/web/20110618105517/http://ycombinato...
I like to keep my hands on my keyboard and I can `command-L` `hn` `return` my way to Algolia quickly from an open browser.
But why oh why doesn’t the search input have focus by default. And since it doesn’t why can’t I type `/` to get focus on the search input. I guess by now the three tab presses should be muscle memory for that but I’m so annoyed by that fact I refuse to internalize it.
Apologies for the random rant
I remember reading some insightful exchanges back in the day that got flagged because of being a controversial topic that other users didn't like.
No way to find them now, even knowing some keywords and approximate month and year.
Vote on Algolia vs. Trieve HN Dataset Blind Search Relevance Poll?
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