Show HN: European tech news in 6 languages
Mood
thoughtful
Sentiment
positive
Category
tech
Key topics
multilingual news aggregation
European tech news
SEO optimization
A few interesting technical challenges:
PATTERN-BASED IMAGE GENERATION Generic AI images all look the same ("holographic businessman with laptop"). I solved this with a JSON database of 60+ concrete visual patterns—context-aware selection prevents repetition. Funding news → coins/contracts, security → locks/shields. Much more visual diversity. Still needs tweaking though.
GRADUAL SITEMAP GROWTH FOR NEW SITES Daily news pipeline generates lots of content. Challenge: Google indexes new sites slowly—exposing all 2K+ URLs at once resulted in 1-3% indexing rate. Solution: Dynamic rolling window in sitemap—only expose top 50 most recent articles (300 URLs), gradually increasing to 100 → 150 → 200 over 6 months as site builds authority. Result: Indexing rate improved to 10%.
AUTOMATED TRANSLATION PIPELINE RSS aggregation → AI summaries and translation with context-aware prompts → human review queue. Still tweaking quality per language pair.
STACK: Next.js 15 with Turbopack, PostgreSQL, deployed via Sliplane@Hetzner which works pretty ok.
STATUS: 1+ month post launch, 80 pages indexed, 100+ European apps featured (Mollie, Wire, Ecosia, LanguageTool, etc.)
FEEDBACK WELCOME ON: • European news sources I'm missing? • Better approaches to multilingual SEO? • Translation quality red flags? • How to optimize for LLM discovery (ChatGPT, Claude, etc.)?
The author built a multilingual news aggregator for European tech news in 6 languages and shares technical challenges and solutions.
Snapshot generated from the HN discussion
Discussion Activity
Very active discussionFirst comment
1m
Peak period
39
Day 1
Avg / period
20.5
Based on 41 loaded comments
Key moments
- 01Story posted
11/14/2025, 12:00:57 PM
4d ago
Step 01 - 02First comment
11/14/2025, 12:02:12 PM
1m after posting
Step 02 - 03Peak activity
39 comments in Day 1
Hottest window of the conversation
Step 03 - 04Latest activity
11/15/2025, 2:05:12 PM
3d ago
Step 04
Generating AI Summary...
Analyzing up to 500 comments to identify key contributors and discussion patterns
I suggest posting this in Show HN [1] if your server can handle it.
For others having issues, direct link: https://europedigital.cloud/en/news
Appreciate the heads up! :)
EDIT: Well I was too quick, it partially works, you can click the grey "source" link on white bg for each article. Why not make the whole div a link instead ?
The sorting menus on top of the page are not working without JS though.
This way users can choose: read our summary/translations, or jump straight to the source. Tried to make it intuitive without cluttering the UI.
You're right about the sorting/filtering requiring JS though - it's client-side state. Could move that to URL params for better progressive enhancement.
Appreciate the detailed feedback, this kind of testing helps! :)
The problem is that you're handling that with JavaScript, instead of adding a <a> with a href, and also missing href for the <img> element.
When you do this, you break the expectations of a typical web user. For example, I cannot ctrl+click or middle-mouse+click on anything of what you've done, because you personally didn't think about how people browse websites. That's not a problem, and not really your fault, lots of courses and tutorials get this wrong, teaching people to use divs then use JS for actually handling the navigation.
If instead you use a.href and img.href, you get all of these expected behavior for free, without doing anything! And as a extra bonus, people who are blind or otherwise need assistance tooling for browsing the web, will now also be able to use your website with their tooling! :)
You're right that this should be: - Proper <a href> for the card wrapper - Nested <a href> for the source link - Let the browser handle ctrl+click, middle-click, etc.
Will add this to the refactor list right away. Thank you for the detailed breakdown this is exactly the kind of extra eyes and explanation I need!
I added them because plain text feels bare, but I'm curious what would work better. Real screenshots? Article-pulled images? Or just skip visuals entirely?
Honest feedback helps, thanks!
You could use it as a model.
Take this[0],
DATENSCUNTZ-EINSTELLUNES should be DATENSCHUTZ-EINSTELLUNGEN
ALLE AKZIETTREN should be ALLE AKZEPTIEREN
you get the point, basically almost all the text is wrong...i think AI-generated images are annoying and vapid enough, but if they don't even show actual text then what's the point? the english ones seem to be fine, can't judge the spanish ones. images feel like a lazy business-powerpoint.
anyways, cool site in general :)
[0]https://europedigital.cloud/_next/image?url=%2Fapi%2Fnews-im...
Options I'm considering: 1. Text-free abstract patterns for non-English articles 2. Language-specific image validation before publishing 3. Manual review queue for non-English images
The pattern-based approach was meant to avoid generic "holographic businessman" images, but clearly the execution needs work for multilingual content.
Thanks for the detailed feedback: this is input I need. Herzlichen dank!
Gern geschehen! Mach ich doch gerne :)
maybe also add a toggle, in addition to the option you choose? option 1 would probably be the best use of your time, just don't use text for non-english generated images.
i deleted the pics in the top-row with the dev-console and i personally would prefer it that way[0] (also because i'd visit the page on an eInk screen sometimes, where no pics would be beneficial anyways, especially if they're just placeholders).
"LLM shovelware": The articles are curated from around 30 European news sources (TechCrunch Europe, Sifted, The Verge, etc.). AI is only used for: 1. Translation (EN→NL/DE/FR/ES/IT) 2. Pattern-based image generation
The curation, source selection, and quality filters are all manual.
"Self-promotion": Fair point on the account activity. I created this account specifically to share this project with HN because the community values European tech sovereignty and privacy.
Happy to answer specific questions about the implementation. The goal is NOT traffic farming, it's building a multilingual resource for European digital policy/startups.
What would make this more valuable to you? :)
NO ADS: Zero advertising. No ad network scripts.
TRACKING: Only privacy-respecting essentials: . Sliplane (European hosting) server logs . No Google Analytics, no third-party trackers
What made you think there's tracking? I want to fix any privacy concerns immediately. This is a European digital sovereignty project & privacy is the whole point.
Can you share what triggered the concern? (Specific script/banner you saw?) Thanks for your help.
> Analytics Cookies
> Help us understand how visitors interact with our website. We use privacy-first analytics.
Tracking.
> Marketing Cookies
> Used to track visitors and show relevant advertisements.
Ads and more tracking.
> Preference Cookies
> Remember your preferences like language and theme settings.
Do these actually require separate consent, or can they be considered functional?
I would expect that a European digital sovereignty project in which privacy is the whole point would not have a cookie consent banner at all, because it would simply not use any non-functional cookies that would require it. I see the cookie banner as a sort of "mark of shame" that nefarious websites are forced to wear.
Also, I recall hearing that there were plans to make highlighting the "Accept All" button above the other options illegal, because it's a dark pattern that gets people to click the highlighted option more often.
* The article selection (which is probably the most important part)
Things that I did not liked:
* AI Images. While they are well made and not as cringe as others, I prefer to get stock images even if they are repeated.
* Lack of RSS (or at least I couldn't find it). This is a deal breaker for me
Nice busy!
RSS: You're the second to mention this already, makes it even more priority.
AI Images: Noted. The pattern was to avoid generic stock "businessman shaking hands" photos, but clearly it's not working for everyone. Options i consider now are: 1. Hide images in RSS/reader mode 2. Stock images as fallback 3. User preference toggle
Would a "reader mode" without images help?
Newsletter is an interesting idea too. Im thinking about a weekly curated roundup per segment. What would your preference be? Thank you for your feedback, well appreciated.
I like to be interested in "other segments". But if they are in a separate subscription/email - I will never prioritize to open it.
Thank you!
Planning to make RSS first and then newsletter.
Appreciate you taking the time to share specifics: helpful for prioritization
Pattern: europedigital.cloud/{locale}/news/rss
Thanks for the suggestion :)
Interesting idea about using AI to auto-tag articles with topics. What specific topics would be most useful for you? (Thinking: AI/ML, Funding, Privacy/GDPR, Regulation, Open Source, etc.)
Topic filtering could work well alongside the current audience/source filters. Will add this to the roadmap for sure, thnks! :)
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