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How did this float to the top of my front page so quickly. Are we all genuinely _that_ interested in new AWS products? or did this post receive some "extra" hel

by JTon 12y ago

How did this float to the top of my front page so quickly. Are we all genuinely _that_ interested in new AWS products? or did this post receive some "extra" help

extesy 12y ago
This makes Amazon competitors to various backend-as-a-service startups (like Parse), so yes, it's interesting.
- JTon 12y ago
  Yeah, it does appear to a hot topic. Still, the post was <10m old and #1 with 0 comments. Seems either extremely overhyped or artificial to me.
  - plorkyeran 12y ago
    New product announcements from large tech companies make it to #1 before getting any comments on a regular basis. Submitting a duplicate URL counts as an upvote for the original submission, so it's pretty easy for something like this to make it to #1 just from people racing to be the first one to submit it.
    - JTon 12y ago
      Ah, I didn't know about the duplicate URL rule. That makes more sense. I've been here for quite a while and I haven't noticed such an aggressive advance before. So it triggered an alarm. Maybe I'll start seeing it more often
danso 12y ago
To answer your first question: Yes. Many of those who work on services are very interested in cloud-based systems, and Amazon happens to be a major leader in this. Ancillary factors: 1. The title is clickworthy. While link-baity titles do work well on HN (compared to very vague titles)...this title sticks out because it is two words: One of them is "Amazon", which has very immediate connotations and brand recognition. The second is a proper noun. Those of us who haven't heard of "Cognito" are likely to think, immediately, "Whoa, new Amazon product, must click-through to see how it will impact my work". That it is two words also makes it visually distinctive regardless of what those words even are. 2. It's 11AM, which means almost every developer on the East Coast is awake, and West Coast developers, particularly the ones responsible enough to reserve HN viewing for before-work hours, are getting their coffee and checking HN. So, lots of potential upvoters.
bsilvereagle 12y ago
Every time someone submits a link, the first posting gets a point. So if 20 people independently posted it to HN before it got to the front page, it would accumulate points pretty quickly without comments.

by JTon 12y ago

How did this float to the top of my front page so quickly. Are we all genuinely _that_ interested in new AWS products? or did this post receive some "extra" help

extesy 12y ago

This makes Amazon competitors to various backend-as-a-service startups (like Parse), so yes, it's interesting.

JTon 12y ago
Yeah, it does appear to a hot topic. Still, the post was <10m old and #1 with 0 comments. Seems either extremely overhyped or artificial to me.
- plorkyeran 12y ago
  New product announcements from large tech companies make it to #1 before getting any comments on a regular basis. Submitting a duplicate URL counts as an upvote for the original submission, so it's pretty easy for something like this to make it to #1 just from people racing to be the first one to submit it.
  - JTon 12y ago
    Ah, I didn't know about the duplicate URL rule. That makes more sense. I've been here for quite a while and I haven't noticed such an aggressive advance before. So it triggered an alarm. Maybe I'll start seeing it more often

danso 12y ago

To answer your first question: Yes. Many of those who work on services are very interested in cloud-based systems, and Amazon happens to be a major leader in this. Ancillary factors: 1. The title is clickworthy. While link-baity titles do work well on HN (compared to very vague titles)...this title sticks out because it is two words: One of them is "Amazon", which has very immediate connotations and brand recognition. The second is a proper noun. Those of us who haven't heard of "Cognito" are likely to think, immediately, "Whoa, new Amazon product, must click-through to see how it will impact my work". That it is two words also makes it visually distinctive regardless of what those words even are. 2. It's 11AM, which means almost every developer on the East Coast is awake, and West Coast developers, particularly the ones responsible enough to reserve HN viewing for before-work hours, are getting their coffee and checking HN. So, lots of potential upvoters.

bsilvereagle 12y ago

Every time someone submits a link, the first posting gets a point. So if 20 people independently posted it to HN before it got to the front page, it would accumulate points pretty quickly without comments.