I feel that it performs really well on queries like those on the landing page, that generally have to do with understanding HN's sentiment about something or finding resources to learn about a topic.

As to your second question, someone looked up “What are some famous Google office pranks?” (https://hackersearch.net/ask?q=What%20are%20some%20famous%20...?) earlier today and I found some gold in there. Some of the hot takes on Gary Marcus have cracked me up too (https://hackersearch.net/ask?q=what%20do%20you%20think%20of%...?).