[kev6168]

A feature suggestion (it might seem stupid to some people, but I think it's interesting):

At the lower right corner, every minute or so, pop up a small box containing three or four newly submitted links. The box is only shown for five seconds, then it disappears by itself. Of course users can close the popup box with a click (and can turn off the feature altogether).

In this way a whole lot of new links are exposed to HN readers.

I don't mind this distraction at all, because 90% of time when I am on HN I am not working, have no need for intensive concentration. Frankly, I am often looking for distractions and unexpected/unusual contents. The more links I can see the merrier (come on, I know you agree with me). When I see an interesting link in the popup, I might click it right away, or just keep it in mind.

The links shown can be the same to everyone on HN at the moment, or better, tailored to the user depending on many factors generated by some testing algorithms.

The benefits are more exposure on newly submitted links and probably more additive and longer mindless browsing on HN :-)