Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Lobsters VS Hacker News Search

Compare Lobsters VS Hacker News Search and see what are their differences

Lobsters logo Lobsters

Lobsters is a technology-focused link-aggregation site.

Hacker News Search logo Hacker News Search

a faster hnsearch
  • Lobsters Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-30
  • Hacker News Search Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-01-25

Lobsters features and specs

  • High-Quality Content
    Lobste.rs has a reputation for hosting high-quality content, primarily focused on technology, programming, and related topics, which attracts knowledgeable users.
  • Community Moderation
    The site employs a community moderation system where users can vote on submissions and comments, helping to maintain a high standard of discussion.
  • Invitation-Only Membership
    New users can only join through an invitation from an existing member, which helps to preserve the quality of the community and reduce spam.
  • Open-Source Platform
    The Lobste.rs codebase is open-source, allowing for community contributions and transparency in how the site operates.
  • Minimalist Design
    The website features a clean and minimalist design that focuses on content without distractions, making it easy to navigate and read.

Possible disadvantages of Lobsters

  • Limited Audience
    Due to its niche focus on technology and programming, Lobste.rs may not offer as broad a range of topics as other forums, limiting its appeal to a wider audience.
  • Invitation Barrier
    The invitation-only system, while maintaining quality, can make it challenging for new users to join unless they know someone already in the community.
  • Smaller Community
    The site has a relatively smaller user base compared to larger platforms like Reddit or Hacker News, which can result in fewer discussions and slower content generation.
  • Bias Towards Technical Topics
    Given its focus, there is often a bias towards highly technical discussions, which might be off-putting to those with a casual interest in technology or programming.
  • Less Mainstream Content
    Mainstream tech news and trends might be underrepresented compared to more niche, highly technical content, which could limit its usefulness for staying current with broader industry trends.

Hacker News Search features and specs

  • Comprehensive Search Capabilities
    Hacker News Search powered by Algolia provides robust and accurate search results, making it easy to find relevant posts and comments quickly.
  • Advanced Filtering Options
    Users can filter search results by date, points, and other criteria, allowing for highly customized and precise searches.
  • Highlighting Feature
    Search terms are highlighted within the results, making it easier to identify relevant information at a glance.
  • Fast Performance
    The search engine is optimized for speed, ensuring that results are returned rapidly, even for complex queries.
  • User-friendly Interface
    The interface is clean, intuitive, and easy to navigate, which enhances the overall user experience.
  • Historical Data Access
    The service includes access to historical data, enabling users to search through older posts and comments.
  • Open Source
    The codebase for the search engine is open source, encouraging community contributions and transparency.

Possible disadvantages of Hacker News Search

  • Limited to Hacker News
    The search service is specifically for Hacker News and doesn't support searching other platforms or forums.
  • Dependence on Algolia
    The functionality of the search engine depends on Algolia's service, making it susceptible to external limitations or changes in the API.
  • No Real-time Updates
    Search results may not include the very latest posts or comments as the indexing may not be in real time.
  • Potential Privacy Concerns
    As with any third-party search service, there may be concerns about how data is stored and managed.
  • Occasional Inaccuracy
    While generally reliable, there can be occasional inaccuracies in search results, such as missing or outdated entries.
  • Overwhelming for Novices
    The advanced options and technical aspects of filtering might be overwhelming for users who are not tech-savvy.

Analysis of Lobsters

Overall verdict

  • Yes, Lobsters (lobste.rs) is generally considered to be a good platform.

Why this product is good

  • Lobsters is a well-regarded technology-focused community that offers high-quality discussions and articles. It is designed to cater to software developers, tech enthusiasts, and industry professionals, providing a platform for sharing links and engaging in discussions without the noise and distractions common in larger forums. The community is smaller and more curated, which often results in more informative and meaningful interactions.

Recommended for

  • Software developers
  • Technology enthusiasts
  • Start-up founders
  • People interested in programming and tech discussions
  • Individuals looking for a moderated and respectful community

Analysis of Hacker News Search

Overall verdict

  • Yes, Hacker News Search (hn.algolia.com) is considered good for users looking to efficiently search through the massive amount of content on Hacker News. It enhances the browsing experience by providing powerful search functionalities that the native Hacker News site lacks.

Why this product is good

  • Hacker News Search, powered by Algolia, is a robust tool for searching through Hacker News posts. It offers fast and accurate search capabilities, allowing users to filter by date, relevance, and various other criteria. The interface is user-friendly, and it provides access to a comprehensive archive of Hacker News discussions, making it easy to find specific topics or comments quickly.

Recommended for

  • Developers or tech enthusiasts who actively follow Hacker News and want to track specific topics or discussions.
  • Researchers looking for insights or trends in tech-related discussions over time.
  • Casual users seeking to find specific posts, comments, or users quickly without manually browsing through pages.

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Lobsters and Hacker News Search)
Social Networks
59 59%
41% 41
Search Engine
0 0%
100% 100
Social News
100 100%
0% 0
Web Search
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using Lobsters and Hacker News Search. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
Log in or Post with

Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Lobsters and Hacker News Search

Lobsters Reviews

15 Best Reddit Alternatives in 2024: Find Your New Online Community
Lobsters is a technology-focused link aggregation site with a strong community emphasis.

Hacker News Search Reviews

We have no reviews of Hacker News Search yet.
Be the first one to post

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Hacker News Search seems to be a lot more popular than Lobsters. While we know about 2347 links to Hacker News Search, we've tracked only 135 mentions of Lobsters. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Lobsters mentions (135)

  • Ask HN: Lobste.rs Invite?
    Http://lobste.rs does describe apporaches to getting an invite. The site is a lot more topic focused than HN. Writing something of interest (web link) to the lobste.rs community is a good way to approach an invite request. ( see lobste.rs topic on chat section ). - Source: Hacker News / 11 days ago
  • Ask HN: Lobste.rs Invite?
    >> "a similar site called lobse.rs" You might mean: https://lobste.rs That said, it looks quite similar to HN, and if I remember correctly, it was launched by HN previous users. - Source: Hacker News / 11 days ago
  • Whistleblower details how DOGE may have taken sensitive NLRB data
    I very much enjoy https://lobste.rs. - Source: Hacker News / about 2 months ago
  • They Might Be Giants Flood EPK Promo (1990) [video]
    Pff. HN has rebranded to become the DOGE News Network. If you want a more curated technical experience, I recommend https://lobste.rs. There's much less latitude for non-technical stuff. - Source: Hacker News / 2 months ago
  • Treasury agrees to block DOGE's access to personal taxpayer data at IRS
    Https://lobste.rs seems to still have technical focus. The issue I have with the comments is that a lot of them don't go into technical issues per se, and are not based on first hand information. What would be useful is if somebody in the government could post specifics about their abuses. - Source: Hacker News / 3 months ago
View more

Hacker News Search mentions (2347)

  • Show HN: We Made GPT Image Editing, but for 3D Models (YC W25)
    Can you please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stick to the rules when posting here? You broke both those sets of guidelines here. Also, while I have you, could you please stop creating accounts for every few comments you post? We ban accounts that do that. This is also in the site guidelines. You needn't use your real name, of course, but for HN to be a community, users need some... - Source: Hacker News / about 15 hours ago
  • The Future of Comments Is Lies, I Guess
    Amused that the third comment is the Tirreno guy continuing to spam his project [0]. Good ol' human spam will never go out of style! [0]: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=tirreno&sort=byDate&type=comment. - Source: Hacker News / 6 days ago
  • How to Do Ambitious Research in the Modern Era [video]
    For those like me who aren't familiar with the speaker's research, this seems interesting as well https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=2&prefix=true&query=inkandswitch.com&sort=byPopularity&type=story. - Source: Hacker News / 6 days ago
  • Worlds first petahertz transistor at ambient conditions
    Here’s what dang says about generated comments on HN: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20%22generated%20comments%22&sort=byDate&type=comment I’ll save you a click: generated comments are against HN guidelines. - Source: Hacker News / 11 days ago
  • Ask HN: Why that many more US-based companies are hiring "US-only" remote?
    Among other reasons, Section 174 tax changes require 15 years of depreciation for non-US software engineering ("R&D"), vs 5 years for US workers, https://hn.algolia.com/?query=Section%20174. - Source: Hacker News / 8 days ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Lobsters and Hacker News Search, you can also consider the following products

Hacker News - Hacker News is a social news website focusing on computer science and entrepreneurship. It is run by Paul Graham's investment fund and startup incubator, Y Combinator.

DuckDuckGo - The Internet privacy company that empowers you to seamlessly take control of your personal information online, without any tradeoffs.

Reddit - Reddit gives you the best of the internet in one place. Get a constantly updating feed of breaking news, fun stories, pics, memes, and videos just for you.

Medium - Welcome to Medium, a place to read, write, and interact with the stories that matter most to you.

Tildes - A non-profit community site driven by its users' interests

hckr news - An unofficial, alternative interface to Hacker News