Product Launch Tracker

Overview

The Product Launch Tracker is an Apify Actor that tracks and extracts product launch data from Hacker News using the Algolia HN API. Provide a search query and the actor returns structured product launch records including product name, launch date, category, description, upvotes, comments, and thumbnail. Whether you're monitoring competitor product launches, conducting market research, or building a product launch database, this actor delivers accurate product launch data efficiently.

With proxy support and smart category inference, the Product Launch Tracker automatically classifies each product launch into relevant categories like AI, SaaS, DevTools, Finance, and more.

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Features

• Product Launch Search – Searches Hacker News stories for product launches matching your query.
• Auto Category Detection – Automatically infers product launch category (AI, SaaS, DevTools, Productivity, Finance, Health, Design, Mobile, Web, etc.) from title and description.
• Thumbnail Generation – Generates favicon thumbnails for each product launch website via Google's favicon service.
• Pagination Support – Automatically paginates through all available results to meet your max_results target.
• Proxy Support – Optionally uses Apify residential proxies to avoid IP blocking.
• Rate-Limit Friendly – Adds a small delay between API requests to respect Hacker News rate limits.
• Error Handling – Logs errors and continues processing remaining product launch data.
• Dataset Integration – Automatically pushes all product launch records to your Apify dataset for easy export.

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How It Works

1. Input – Provide a search query and maximum number of results.
2. API Search – The actor queries the Hacker News Algolia API (search_by_date) for stories matching the query.
3. Category Inference – Each product launch is automatically classified based on keywords in the title and description.
4. Thumbnail – A favicon thumbnail URL is generated from the product launch website domain.
5. Build Output – Structures all data into a clean record and pushes it to the dataset.
6. Repeat – Paginates through results until max_results is reached.

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Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
query	String	"launch"	Search keyword for product launch discovery (e.g., "AI tool launch").
max_results	Integer	20	Maximum number of product launch records to return.
proxyConfiguration	Object	{}	Apify proxy configuration (e.g., { "proxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"] }).

Example input:

{
  "query": "product launch",
  "max_results": 50,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "proxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"],
    "apifyProxyCountry": "US"
  }
}

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Output

Each product launch is pushed as a separate dataset record with the following fields:

Field	Type	Description
product_name	string	Name/title of the product launch.
company	string	Company name (empty by default — not available via HN API).
launch_date	string	Product launch date (YYYY-MM-DD).
category	string	Inferred product launch category (e.g., "AI", "SaaS", "DevTools").
description	string	Product launch description or story text.
website	string	Product launch website URL.
source	string	Data source (always "Hacker News").
upvotes	integer	Number of upvotes on the product launch story.
comments	integer	Number of comments on the product launch story.
ph_url	string	Direct link to the Hacker News product launch story.
thumbnail	string	Favicon thumbnail URL generated from the product launch website.

Example output:

{
  "product_name": "Launch HN: Buildspace – Build and launch your own AI product",
  "company": "",
  "launch_date": "2024-03-15",
  "category": "AI",
  "description": "We built a platform to help developers ship AI products faster...",
  "website": "https://buildspace.so",
  "source": "Hacker News",
  "upvotes": 320,
  "comments": 87,
  "ph_url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39876543",
  "thumbnail": "https://www.google.com/s2/favicons?domain=buildspace.so&sz=128"
}

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Inferred Product Launch Categories

The actor automatically classifies each product launch into one of the following categories based on keywords:

Category	Keywords Used
AI	ai, llm, gpt, machine learning, chatbot, assistant
SaaS	saas, subscription, platform
DevTools	devtool, developer, api, cli, sdk, open source
Productivity	productivity, calendar, notes, todo, workflow
Finance	fintech, bank, payments, invoice, accounting
Health	health, medical, doctor, patient, fitness
Design	design, figma, ui, ux, prototype
Mobile	ios, android, app
Web	website, web app, browser
Tech	tech, software, platform
Other	(fallback if no keywords match)

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Use Cases

• Product Launch Monitoring – Track new product launches in your industry in real time.
• Competitor Intelligence – Monitor competitor product launches and feature announcements.
• Market Research – Analyze product launch trends across categories like AI, SaaS, and DevTools.
• Investment Research – Discover early-stage product launches gaining traction on Hacker News.
• Content Aggregation – Aggregate product launch stories for newsletters, blogs, or reports.
• Data Science – Build product launch datasets for trend analysis and machine learning.

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Quick Start

1. Open on Apify – Visit the actor page and click Try for free.
2. Set Input – Enter your search keyword in the query field (e.g., "AI launch", "SaaS").
3. Set Limit – Adjust max_results to control how many product launch records to fetch.
4. Enable Proxy (Optional) – Configure proxy groups if needed.
5. Run the Actor – Start the run and monitor progress in the logs.
6. Download Results – Export the product launch dataset as JSON, CSV, or Excel.

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Technical Stack

• Data Source – Hacker News Algolia API (free, public)
• HTTP Client – requests with SSL verification via certifi
• Category Inference – Keyword-based rule engine
• Thumbnail – Google Favicon API
• Proxy – Apify Proxy (residential or datacenter)
• Platform – Apify Actor — serverless, scalable, integrated with Dataset and Key-Value Store

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Changelog

v1.0.0 – Initial Release

• Product launch search via Hacker News Algolia API
• Auto category inference from title and description
• Favicon thumbnail generation per product launch
• Pagination support for large result sets
• Proxy configuration support
• Rate-limit friendly delays
• Dataset integration with error handling

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Pricing

• Free for basic usage on Apify (up to certain compute limits).
• Paid plans available for higher volume, priority support, and longer runs.
• Proxy credits consumed if residential proxies are enabled.

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Support & Feedback

• Issues & Ideas – Open a ticket on the Apify Actor issue tracker.
• Documentation – Visit Apify Docs for platform guides.
• API Notes – This actor uses the public Hacker News Algolia API. Please use responsibly and avoid excessive request rates.

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Disclaimer: This actor accesses publicly available data from the Hacker News API. Please ensure your usage complies with Hacker News and Algolia's terms of service. This actor is intended for research and informational purposes only.