HN Search Quality

Users criticize the poor quality, relevance, ranking, and occasional censorship of Hacker News search results, expressing frustration and suggesting improvements like better query handling and diversity.

📉 Falling 0.3x Other
4,175
Comments
20
Years Active
5
Top Authors
#4909
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Keywords

SEO e.g AI HN www.cuil DDG I.e sortitoutsi.net FAQ results search search results searches query search engine engine ranking retrieval page

Sample Comments

skinkestek Dec 11, 2020 View on HN

I.e. worse than ordinary search results?

Sargos Sep 20, 2017 View on HN

People who like inaccurate search results?

amelius May 30, 2025 View on HN

Bad search results are a source of frustration, yes.

SquishyPanda23 Oct 31, 2019 View on HN

Sure that makes sense. Their search engine is not amazing.

mturmon Jun 6, 2017 View on HN

If you're running a top-notch search engine, why are you excluding the results I care about most?

NotAnOtter Sep 16, 2021 View on HN

"Don't be afraid to scroll down in the search results, unlike in many other search engines, depending on what you are looking for, you may find the best results in the middle of the listing."This is a very polite way of saying "this engine isn't very good"Overall impressed with the project but I thought the word play there was funny

darkmx0z Jun 2, 2020 View on HN

You are getting that because other people do not care about what you are searching for :( their AI is maximizing the chances of quickly finding what most people want, not what you want.

ifyoubuildit Feb 22, 2024 View on HN

How much of this do they do to their search results?

akhatri_aus Jun 17, 2015 View on HN

What is HN's opinion on the quality of the search results?

seungwoolee518 May 9, 2024 View on HN

Yeah, the quality of search make me think like your comment.