Hacker News Insights research
Hacker News in 2016
The strongest tracked Hacker News title themes in 2016, with annual shares and historical context.
Data through 2026-07-13
This page ranks the tracked topics by their share of retained Hacker News story titles in 2016. It is a full calendar year; topic patterns can overlap and the list is not a taxonomy of every story.
| Rank | Topic | Category | Title share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Startups | Meta | 1.839% |
| 2 | Security | Crypto & privacy | 1.131% |
| 3 | AI / LLM | AI | 1.088% |
| 4 | JavaScript | Languages | 0.938% |
| 5 | Open source | Meta | 0.886% |
| 6 | Python | Languages | 0.848% |
| 7 | Bitcoin / crypto | Crypto & privacy | 0.820% |
| 8 | Linux | Infra | 0.743% |
| 9 | React | Web | 0.734% |
| 10 | Docker | Infra | 0.533% |
| 11 | Privacy | Crypto & privacy | 0.478% |
| 12 | Rust | Languages | 0.239% |
Context markers
- 2016-03 — AlphaGo beats Lee Sedol: DeepMind's AlphaGo wins 2016-03 — a landmark AI moment.
- 2016-11 — 2016 US election: Outcome 2016-11 drives platform/misinformation debates on HN.
Method
Every percentage uses that year's retained story-title count as its denominator. Visit the Attention Lab for 2016 or read the methodology.