# S2 Geometry

Hacker Approved page: https://hackerapproved.com/p/s2-geometry/

5 people recommended S2 Geometry in Hacker News comments, 1 had mixed feelings and 2 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026. It was recommended in 3 of 12 months, in 3 threads. It does not meet the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** People recommend this Google spherical geometry library for its hierarchical cells, where parent cells always contain their children, and for being pleasant to use. Critics point to visual distortion of the cells and a lack of examples.

Summary written by Claude from 6 comments.

## Why people recommend it

- Parent cells always contain children (1 comment in the sample): "has the very nice property that parent cells do indeed always contain their children" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46936327))
- Pleasant to work with (1 comment in the sample): "It was very pleasant to work with" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47908476))
- Google-developed geometry library (1 comment in the sample): "Also very cool: Google's S2 geometry" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47904653))

## What people warn about

- Visual distortion of cells (1 comment in the sample): "For my use case, the visual distortion of S2 was quite a no-go." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45804547))
- Lack of use cases and examples (1 comment in the sample): "I tried and tried to use S2 in my company but the lack of available use cases and examples made it tough to adopt." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45811894))
- Not particularly strong at either (1 comment in the sample): "being not particularly good at either" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46921551))

## What people recommend instead

- [Manifold](https://hackerapproved.com/p/manifold/): 14 recommend, 4 mixed, 3 criticize

## The badge

A product earns the Hacker Approved badge when at least 10 people recommend it, recommenders outnumber critics at least 2 to 1 (mixed feelings count toward neither side), it was recommended in at least 4 of the 12 months and in at least 5 different threads, and no single thread supplies more than half of the people who recommend it. Health and money products are never badged.

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "S2 Geometry", https://hackerapproved.com/p/s2-geometry/ (5 recommend, 1 mixed, 2 criticize; Hacker News comments, November 2025 to October 2026).

Counts updated 2 Nov 2026, with data through October 31, 2026.