Recently, I built a Python-based scraper that collects public video data from YouTube channels — without using the official API. This was a fun and insightful project where I explored how YouTube structures its data and how to extract information efficiently.
🔧 What It Does
The script can extract the following:
- Video Titles
- View Counts
- Publish Dates
- Video URLs
- Thumbnails
It works directly from channel pages by sending requests and parsing the HTML with BeautifulSoup.
🎥 Demo Video
I recorded a short demo of the scraper in action:
👉 Watch on YouTube
💻 Source Code on GitHub
The complete Python code is open-source and available here:
👉 View GitHub Repository
🔍 Libraries Used
requests
BeautifulSoup(frombs4)
refor regex
jsonfor parsing dynamic data blocks
📌 Why No API?
YouTube's official Data API has:
- Quota limitations
- Requires API key setup
- More overhead for small-scale scrapers
So I challenged myself to build a solution that works purely via scraping — lightweight and fast.
💡 Next Steps
I’m considering adding:
- CLI flags for custom inputs
- CSV/JSON export support
- Playlist/channel crawler
- Error handling & logging
Would love feedback and suggestions from the community!
🤝 Let’s Connect
If you've worked on similar projects or want to collaborate, feel free to reach out. Also open to contributors or testers!