Hacker News Insights research
Hacker News in 2017
The strongest tracked Hacker News title themes in 2017, 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 2017. 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 | AI / LLM | AI | 1.764% |
| 2 | Bitcoin / crypto | Crypto & privacy | 1.742% |
| 3 | Startups | Meta | 1.598% |
| 4 | Security | Crypto & privacy | 1.185% |
| 5 | JavaScript | Languages | 0.972% |
| 6 | Python | Languages | 0.921% |
| 7 | React | Web | 0.868% |
| 8 | Open source | Meta | 0.809% |
| 9 | Linux | Infra | 0.679% |
| 10 | Privacy | Crypto & privacy | 0.499% |
| 11 | Docker | Infra | 0.438% |
| 12 | Kubernetes | Infra | 0.373% |
Context markers
- 2017-05 — ICO mania begins: 2017 ICO boom; token sales flood the news through the year.
- 2017-09 — Equifax breach: Equifax discloses a breach of ~147M people 2017-09.
- 2017-12 — Bitcoin ~$20k peak: BTC peaks near $20k 2017-12 before the 2018 crash.
Method
Every percentage uses that year's retained story-title count as its denominator. Visit the Attention Lab for 2017 or read the methodology.