Hacker News Comments About Adding 'Reddit' to Searches Peaked in 2022 and Fell 84.8% by 2026, as AI Switch Stories Caught Up

Summary

Plenty of people learned the same trick around 2020: when search results feel like ads and filler, type your question and add the word reddit. You get real people arguing about which vacuum to buy or how they fixed a leaky tap. On Hacker News, developers talked about that trick more every year until 2022.

We counted every comment describing it since 2015. Mentions peaked in 2022 at 7.2 per 100,000 comments, then dropped by 84.8% to 1.1 in 2026.

Over the same years, a different habit took its place in the conversation. By 2025, first-hand comments about asking an AI tool instead of searching were as frequent as comments about the Reddit trick.

What we measured

We used the public Hacker News table on Google BigQuery and matched live comments that describe adding reddit to a search query, such as adding, appending or typing reddit after a search, site:reddit.com or +reddit. A check of 50 random matches found about 42 (84%) clearly describing the search habit. Rates divide by all live comments in each year.

For the AI side we used the 198 comments our team read and confirmed as first-hand or close-contact reports of using an AI assistant instead of a search engine, from our related study. The two measures use different methods, one keyword-based and one fully verified, so we compare their trends rather than treating them as exact equals.

The Reddit search trick peaked in 2022

The habit spread through the late 2010s as people complained that results were crowded with ads and filler.

The rate climbed from 0.6 in 2015 to 2.1 in 2019 and 7.2 in 2022. It held nearly as high in 2023 at 6.8, then dropped to 5.1 in 2024, 1.6 in 2025 and 1.1 in 2026.

AI switch stories caught up in 2025

We set the Reddit trick next to the comments where people said they now ask AI instead of searching.

In 2022 the Reddit trick was 41 times as common as AI switch stories, which only began in December of that year. By 2025 they were level, and they stayed close in 2026. The two lines meeting coincides with AI assistants becoming a common way to get the same kind of plain, experience-based answer people went to Reddit for.

Reddit-search comments now often mention AI

The remaining comments about the Reddit trick increasingly talk about AI too, often comparing the two or noting that AI tools draw heavily on Reddit threads.

The share rose from 3.1% in 2022 to 13.9% in 2023, 23.5% in 2024, 35.7% in 2025 and 37.5% in 2026. Reddit may not have lost its value as a source; people may increasingly reach those community answers through AI tools instead of typing the word themselves.

What this means

People added reddit to their searches because they wanted honest answers from real people. AI assistants now serve much of that need, and they lean on the same kind of community discussion. If customers talk about your business in forums and reviews, that talk can now shape what AI tools say about you. That is why AI SEO services now pay attention to reviews and forum threads, not only your own pages.

Make sure your own site states the facts clearly, and that public conversations about your business are accurate. Want to know how AI answers currently describe you? Our free AI visibility audit shows it, and our generative engine optimization services cover the follow-up work on your site and listings.

Limits

Reddit-search comments were found by keywords; a 50-comment check found about 84% describing the habit.

The AI comparison uses a fully verified set of 198 comments, built differently from the keyword-based Reddit count, so the two rates are comparable in trend but not exactly.

Comment counts reflect what developers chose to write about, not how often anyone actually searches this way.

The fall coincides with the rise of AI answers; the data does not show that one caused the other.

2026 covers January to September only.

Frequently asked questions

Related studies

• Developer conversation on Hacker News'Slop' Now Shows Up in 1 of Every 149 Hacker News Comments
• Developer conversation on Hacker News'Written by AI' Comments on Hacker News Up 4.6x Since 2023
• Developer conversation on Hacker Newsllms.txt Splits Developers: 54% For, 46% Against
• Developer conversation on Hacker NewsAI SEO Draws 3x the Positive Developer Comments of SEO