Earlier this week, a bookmarklet was released that enlivens Hacker News comment threads. This thing makes me feel like I have magic powers. You have no idea how often I would refresh pages on HN before I started using this, especially on posts that are my own or that I had commented on. Now I can simply leave pages open in tabs and go about my day. The page titles update whenever there are new comments.

Under the hood, the bookmarklet uses the HNStream API that I created some months ago, which is powered by Fanout.

Functionality aside, the bookmarklet is also an incredible hack (in the good sense). Somehow it manages to parse the original HTML of the page and manipulate it, all while maintaining HN’s intentionally-plain appearance. Katsuyuki is a genius.

Seriously, go check it out. If you’re an avid HN user like me, it’ll change your life.