Hacker News Keyword Search

Hacker News - Y Combinator's community bulletin board - is where technologists, startup founders, and engineers surface the content that shapes tech industry thinking. A front-page Hacker News post can drive thousands of visitors to a startup, spark industry debates, or signal emerging technology trends days before mainstream media catches on. Searching Hacker News by keyword reveals how the tech community discusses specific technologies, companies, and ideas - but the site's minimalist interface makes it difficult to extract that data for analysis.

What it extracts

• Position — Ranking position of the post in search results.
• News Title — Title of the Hacker News submission.
• News Source — The original source or domain of the linked content.
• Date — When the post was submitted to Hacker News.
• News Link — Link to the original content being discussed.
• Total Comments — Number of discussion comments on the post.

What you can do with it

• Brand mention monitoring: Track every time your company or product is discussed on Hacker News. Sentiment from this community heavily influences tech-savvy early adopters.
• Technology pulse reading: Filter for specific technologies (e.g., 'Rust', 'WebAssembly', 'LLM') to track discussion volume, sentiment, and trending perspectives over time.
• Competitor intelligence: Monitor Hacker News discussions about competitor products. High-scoring posts with many comments indicate significant community interest or concern.
• Content discovery: Find high-quality technical content and discussions about your focus areas. The community's voting system surfaces genuinely valuable links.

How it works

Enter the requested input when prompted. The flow opens the target page, extracts the fields listed above, and saves them as a CSV in your home folder.

Frequently asked questions

Can I search for multiple keywords?

Build your search query on Hacker News with multiple terms, Boolean operators, or quoted phrases before copying the URL. The robot extracts whatever the search returns.

How is the score calculated?

HN scores reflect net upvotes from the community. Higher scores indicate broader agreement that the post is interesting or valuable.

Can I filter by date range?

Yes. Hacker News search supports date range filtering. Apply your date filter before copying the URL and the robot extracts only results within that range.

Does this capture 'Show HN' and 'Ask HN' posts?

Yes. All post types appear in search results - stories, Show HN, Ask HN, and job posts - if they match your keyword.

Is this Hacker News scraper free?

Browse AI's free plan includes credits to run this robot. No credit card required.