I'm trying to figure out what a specific date in the YouTube API response means. Here's a snippet of the XML I received:
<published>2023-05-15T14:30:22.000Z</published>
<updated>2023-05-15T14:30:22.000Z</updated>
I'm particularly curious about the 'updated' field. Does anyone know what this represents? Is it perhaps the last time the user interacted with their account or made changes to their profile?
I'd really appreciate any insights from those familiar with YouTube's API. Thanks in advance for your help!
As someone who’s been knee-deep in YouTube API work for years, I can tell you that the ‘updated’ field is a bit of a tricky beast. It’s supposed to indicate when the video’s metadata was last modified, but in practice, it’s not always that straightforward.
I’ve seen cases where it updates for seemingly minor changes, and other times where significant edits don’t trigger an update at all. It’s particularly unreliable for tracking user account activity or profile changes - that’s not really its purpose.
My advice? Don’t put too much stock in the ‘updated’ field alone. If you’re trying to track changes or user activity, you’re better off looking at a combination of fields or implementing your own tracking system. The YouTube API can be a powerful tool, but it’s got its quirks, and this is definitely one of them.
I’ve worked extensively with the YouTube API, and I can shed some light on this. The ‘updated’ field indeed represents the last time any metadata associated with the video was modified. This includes changes to the title, description, tags, privacy settings, or even thumbnail updates. However, it’s worth noting that not all changes trigger an update to this timestamp. For instance, view count increases or new comments don’t affect it. In my experience, relying solely on this field for tracking changes can be unreliable. I’d recommend implementing a more robust change detection system if that’s your goal.
hey there! the ‘updated’ field usually shows when the video info was last changed. could be edits to title, description, tags etc. not always super reliable tho, sometimes it just matches ‘published’ date. if ur trying to track changes, might wanna look at other fields too. hope that helps!