Userscript that shows HN submission count for any page

Name: Userscript that shows HN submission count for any page
Availability: InStock
Author: overflowy

by overflowy·Apr 17, 2026·1 point·1 comment

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AI Analysis

●●SolidNiche GemCozy

Shows HN submission count inline on any page, not just HN itself.

Strengths

•URL canonicalization handles edge cases: query params, fragments, www., trailing slashes
•Works on any webpage, not just HN — extracts submitted URL from HN item pages
•Graceful error handling with 8-second timeout and fallback menu labels

Weaknesses

•Narrow audience — only HN power users will find this genuinely useful
•Requires Tampermonkey or similar userscript manager, adds friction

Post Description

On page load, it canonicalizes the current URL (strips query params, fragment, www., trailing slash, and protocol) and queries the HN Algolia API, then updates the menu label with the result count (e.g. "3 results" or "No results"). If you're already on a news.ycombinator.com/item page, it extracts the submitted URL from the post and searches for that instead.

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