MEKATurn a channel preview into a useful content shortlist
See what a public channel publishes, identify topics worth watching, and bring source records into your research. Content teams can explore packaging ideas, partnership teams can check creator fit, and researchers can collect a small, traceable set of videos.
NASA's SpaceX Crew-13 Mission (Official NASA Trailer)
98K views · 1:02
8 days ago at capture
Which topics deserve a closer look?
Approximate views · thousands (K), from source display labels.
Moon Base has the largest displayed count in this sample. Its “1 month ago” label differs from Crew-13’s “8 days ago”: inspect topic, packaging and age before judging performance. These bars do not make rounded labels exact.
Compare length before borrowing a format
Video duration · seconds. Counts and duration answer different questions.
Moon Base and Artemis III are close in length and both carry “1 month ago” labels. They form a more useful starting pair for a packaging review; the broad date labels still do not establish equal exposure time.
| Video | Displayed views | Length | Published label at capture |
|---|---|---|---|
| NASA's SpaceX Crew-13 Mission (Official NASA Trailer) | 98K views | 1:02 | 8 days ago |
| NASA Moon Base: The First Six Months | 517K views | 1:07 | 1 month ago |
| What It Takes | 322K views | 2:32 | 1 month ago |
| Artemis III: Our Next Step Back to the Moon | 151K views | 1:01 | 1 month ago |
| For Earth, With Love: Artemis II | 436K views | 3:23 | 1 month ago |
Source: NASA’s public Videos tab, captured October 9, 2026. Exact video views and publication timestamps were unavailable. Latest order was requested but unconfirmed. Five records cannot establish channel averages, growth or a causal relationship between duration and views.
How to use the YouTube Channel Scraper
Choose a channel and a question
Paste its handle, channel URL or ID. Decide whether you want to review recent topics, investigate a creator’s focus or collect source links for a brief.
Select one content format
Choose Videos, Shorts or Livestreams, complete verification, and run the free preview. Review the channel identity and any source warnings first.
Inspect, then export
Compare titles, thumbnails, dates and lengths. Open promising items on YouTube, then download JSON to keep the source IDs and count precision with your notes.
Choose the right comparison
A channel can use several formats for different goals. Pick the tab that matches your question and compare like with like.
| Format | Best research question | What to inspect | Interpretation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Videos | Which topics and packaging are worth a deeper review? | Title, thumbnail, duration, source date and view label | Compare similar ages and lengths. A short duration alone does not classify an item as a Short. |
| Shorts | How does the channel package ideas for its Shorts audience? | Shorts tab, topic, title, available duration and view label | Starts and replays count as views from March 31, 2025. Keep Shorts separate from regular videos; engaged views are not included. |
| Livestreams | How does the creator use live events and replays? | Upcoming, live or completed status; date and viewer/view label | Current watchers are a point-in-time audience, not cumulative plays or peak viewers. Compare completed streams separately. |
Definitions: YouTube’s Shorts view guidance and YouTube’s live-stream metrics.
Read the fields with their context
Keep source labels alongside numeric values. They explain what a count measures, how precise it is, and which details were available.
| Field group | JSON fields | How to use it |
|---|---|---|
| Channel identity | title, handle, id, url | Confirm that you are reviewing the right creator. Keep the channel ID as your stable reference. |
| Channel context | description, country, joined, url, avatar | Understand the channel’s stated positioning and open its source page. Missing profile details remain unknown. |
| Channel totals | subscribersText, videosText, viewsText | Read totals as source display labels. Channel views cover the channel, not only these five items; abbreviated subscriber labels are not exact counts. |
| Video identity & packaging | id, url, title, thumbnail | Build a shortlist of topics and title/thumbnail patterns; open the source to inspect the content. |
| Format & status | contentType, liveStatus | Keep Videos, Shorts and streams in separate comparisons. A stream may be upcoming, live or completed. |
| View counts | views, viewsText, viewsPrecision | An exact number, rounded display label, or unavailable value. For live items, the label may describe people watching now. |
| Publication context | displayedDate, publishedText, dateSource | Retain relative source labels. Do not turn ‘1 month ago’ into an invented calendar date. |
| Length | durationSeconds, durationText | Compare similar lengths and plan a viewing shortlist. Unavailable duration is not a zero-length video. |
| Completeness & order | channelInfoStatus, sortStatus | Video descriptions are not requested. Latest order is requested; an unconfirmed sort should be checked on YouTube. |
Views are a snapshot
Public counts help you shortlist content. They do not reveal reach, unique viewers or retention. Preserve viewsText when views is null, and compare the same format at similar publication ages.
Subscribers give scale
A label such as “15.1M subscribers” gives channel context. It is not an exact audience size or a measure of who saw a particular upload. YouTube also rounds public subscriber counts to three significant figures.
Time explains exposure
A recent video has had less time to accumulate views. Keep “8 days ago” as a source label and retain your capture date; do not calculate daily growth from a single observation.
Metric references: public subscriber-count precision and YouTube view-count definitions. These explain the metrics; the preview fields are MEKA’s public-channel preview format.
From five records to a practical research decision
Start with one question, make a comparable shortlist, and validate it by watching the source videos. Export the evidence you used so another teammate can follow your reasoning.
| Your goal | Evidence to compare | Next action |
|---|---|---|
| Plan a content brief | Topics, titles and thumbnails among videos of similar age and length | Watch two comparable items. Note the promise in each title, thumbnail framing and opening; propose a testable creative idea. |
| Check creator fit | Channel description, source channel URL and the topics in the selected format | Open the source channel to check its identity, then assess whether the actual content fits your audience and brief. |
| Review Shorts strategy | Recurring topics and packaging within the Shorts tab | Identify patterns to inspect in the videos. Use authorized analytics to evaluate retention before adopting a format. |
| Track event coverage | Live status, stream title and source date label | Separate scheduled events, currently live items and completed replays; record when a viewer snapshot was observed. |
| Build a research log | Stable channel/video IDs, source URLs, capture time and precision | Append dated observations rather than overwrite earlier records. Leave missing values empty and keep the source label. |
Use the JSON without losing precision
Download the current result to join video IDs with your editorial notes, deduplicate links or prepare a spreadsheet. Keep the count label, exact value and precision in separate columns.
{
"id": "ErAqN6gXqZQ",
"url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErAqN6gXqZQ",
"contentType": "video",
"views": null,
"viewsText": "98K views",
"viewsPrecision": "abbreviated_or_unparsed",
"displayedDate": null,
"publishedText": "8 days ago",
"durationSeconds": 62
}In this record, views: null means the exact count is unavailable; “98K views” remains useful display evidence. Store displayedDate as empty, retain “8 days ago”, and keep October 9, 2026 as the example’s capture date. The 62-second duration is a numeric value you can compare directly.
For your own export, retain searchedAt, input, tab and warnings with the records. Check precision before calculations. Avoid converting missing counts to zero or dividing rounded counts by an assumed publication age.
Frequently asked questions
Which channel inputs can I use?
Enter a handle such as @NASA, an HTTPS youtube.com channel URL, or a UC channel ID. A video or playlist URL identifies a different resource; use the creator’s channel instead. The example buttons only fill the input; Run free preview retrieves data.
How many videos will I get?
Up to five public items from the selected tab, with the available channel profile. This is a quick research preview. It does not paginate through a channel’s archive, retrieve every description or provide a full-channel export.
Are the items guaranteed to be the latest uploads?
The preview requests latest order. If the source does not confirm that selection, a warning appears in the results and sortStatus records the uncertainty. Check the channel tab before treating the order as a publication timeline.
Why is the numeric view count null when a view label is visible?
YouTube may display an abbreviated label such as 98K views. The preview preserves that label in viewsText and marks its precision. A null views value means an exact numeric count is unavailable; it should stay empty in a spreadsheet rather than become zero or an invented exact count.
Can I compare Shorts views with regular video views?
Compare each format separately. Since March 31, 2025, YouTube counts a Short view when it starts playing or replays, with no minimum watch time. This preview does not include engaged views, retention or watch time, so public views alone cannot establish viewing quality.
What does a livestream’s viewer count mean?
Read liveStatus and the source count label together. For a currently live item, the displayed count may represent people watching at that moment. That snapshot is different from cumulative views and is not a peak-concurrency measurement. Upcoming and completed streams need their own context.
Why are publication dates relative?
Channel cards may expose labels such as 8 days ago rather than exact publication timestamps. The preview retains publishedText and leaves unavailable displayed dates null. Record when you ran the preview so future readers can interpret those labels.
Can this show engagement, revenue or audience demographics?
The public preview provides identity, content metadata and available public counts. It does not supply likes-to-view ratios, comments, impressions, click-through rates, watch time, revenue or audience demographics. Use authorized channel analytics when those measures are needed.
What if the channel or selected tab has no results?
Check the handle or channel ID, open the channel on YouTube, and try a populated tab. A channel may not publish every format; unavailable or restricted content can also produce an empty response. An empty preview is not proof that the channel has never published content.
What does Download JSON include?
It exports the current preview, including the input, selected tab, search time, available channel profile, up to five items and warnings. The recorded example below is a separate historical sample. This tool does not advertise a separate public API or Actor Dataset export.