How to Copy YouTube Shorts Titles, View Counts, URLs, and Thumbnails

How to Copy YouTube Shorts Titles, View Counts, URLs, and Thumbnails

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Want to copy YouTube Shorts titles, view counts, URLs, and thumbnails into a spreadsheet?

You don’t need extensions, tools, or the YouTube API. This guide shows a simple JavaScript method you can run directly in your browser to extract Shorts data in seconds.

By the end, you’ll have clean, spreadsheet-ready data for titles, views, links, and thumbnails — no copy-paste pain.

To make this extra tasty, I’m using my wife’s amazing Shorts channel, @cook-with-priti, as our example. She’s whipping up drool-worthy recipes in 60 seconds or less, and trust me, you’ll want to scrape her Shorts just to keep track of all the deliciousness. Let’s dive in, have a laugh, and get that data into a spreadsheet faster than you can say “algorithm”!

Quick Answer: How to Copy YouTube Shorts Data

  • Open the channel’s Shorts tab in Chrome
  • Scroll to load all Shorts
  • Run a JavaScript snippet in DevTools
  • Copy the output into Excel or Google Sheets

JavaScript Code to Copy YouTube Shorts Titles, Views & Thumbnails

Here’s the JavaScript magic to run in Chrome’s console. It’s simpler than assembling IKEA furniture and way more fun.

// Clear any existing scroll interval and console (because we’re tidy like that)
window.clearInterval(scroll);
console.clear();

// Select all video elements on the Shorts page
const shortElements = document.querySelectorAll('a[href*="/shorts/"]');

// Collect data in an array (like collecting Pokémon cards, but nerdier)
const data = [['Title', 'View Count', 'URL', 'Thumbnail']]; // Header row

shortElements.forEach((element) => {
    // Get the video URL
    const url = element.href;

    // Get the title (from aria-label or text content, because YouTube’s DOM is a maze)
    const titleElement = element.querySelector('h4') || element.querySelector('[id="video-title"]') || element;
    let title = titleElement.getAttribute('aria-label') || titleElement.textContent.trim() || 'No title found';
    
    // Clean title and yoink the view count
    let viewCount = title.match(/\d+(\.\d+)?[KM]? views/i)?.[0] || 'No views found';
    title = title.replace(/\d+(\.\d+)?[KM]? views/i, '').replace(/\s+/g, ' ').trim();

    // Standardize thumbnail URL (because we’re fancy like that)
    let thumbnail = 'No thumbnail found';
    const videoId = url.match(/\/shorts\/([^\?]+)/)?.[1];
    if (videoId) {
        thumbnail = `https://i.ytimg.com/vi/${videoId}/hqdefault.jpg`;
    }

    // Add row to our data treasure chest
    data.push([title, viewCount, url, thumbnail]);
});

// Convert data to tab-separated string (spreadsheet, here we come!)
const output = data.map(row => row.join('\t')).join('\n');

// Output the result like a boss
console.log(output);

Why Bother Scraping YouTube Shorts?

Shorts are the internet’s current obsession – think Instagram, but with YouTube’s vibe. If you’re running a channel like @cook-with-priti (go subscribe, her recipes are chef’s kiss), you might want to:

  • Spot your viral hits (like that one Short with 194K views – yowza! ).
  • Organize your content for your next big pitch to a food brand.
  • Build a fancy thumbnail gallery to flex your editing skills.
  • Or just geek out because data is your love language.

Manually copying this stuff? Nope, that’s a one-way ticket to Carpal Tunnel City. Instead, we’ll use a quick JavaScript script to scrape everything from @cook-with-priti’s Shorts page (or yours) and make it spreadsheet-ready. Let’s do this!

Who Can Use This and How It Boosts Your Shorts Game

This scraping trick is a game-changer for content creators, social media managers, marketers, and data enthusiasts. If you’re a YouTuber like @cook-with-priti, you can analyze which Shorts are popping (e.g., that paneer tikka recipe with 12K views) to double down on what works – maybe more spicy recipes or quick desserts. Social media pros can track client channels, spotting trends to pitch better content strategies.

Marketers can use view counts and titles to craft targeted campaigns, while data nerds can feed this into analytics tools for next-level insights. With the scraped data, you can sort by views to find your top performers, study thumbnail styles that grab attention, or plan a content calendar based on what’s hot. It’s like having a cheat code to make your Shorts slay the algorithm!

The Master Plan (No Evil Laugh Required)

Here’s what our script will do:

  1. Hit the Shorts page: We’ll scrape from a channel’s Shorts tab, like https://www.youtube.com/@cook-with-priti/shorts.
  2. Snag the goodies: Grab each Short’s title, view count (e.g., “2.5K views”), URL, and thumbnail.
  3. Polish it up: Strip view counts from titles and standardize thumbnails to hqdefault.jpg
  4. Spit out a spreadsheet-friendly list: One big, tab-separated block you can copy-paste into Excel or Google Sheets.

No servers, no libraries – just you, Chrome’s console, and a coffee to keep the vibes high.

What’s Happening Here?

  • Hunting Shorts: We use querySelectorAll(‘a[href*=”/shorts/”]’) to find all Shorts links, like a digital treasure hunt.
  • Stealing Titles: We grab titles from aria-label or text content, then kick out view counts and extra spaces.
  • Counting Views: A sneaky regex snags “2.5K views” or “194K views” for a separate column.
  • Tidying Thumbnails: We build clean hqdefault.jpg URLs from each Short’s video ID, because who needs chaos?
  • Output Magic: Everything’s packed into one tab-separated block, so you don’t have to wrestle with console junk like VM prefixes.

How to Pull This Off (Without Breaking a Sweat)

Ready to scrap @cook-with-priti’s Shorts (or your own channel)? Follow these steps, and you’ll be swimming in data faster than you can burn toast.

1. Head to the Shorts Page

  • Open Chrome and visit your channel’s Shorts page, like https://m.youtube.com/@cook-with-priti/shorts. (Pro tip: Check out Priti’s recipes while you’re there – your stomach will thank you!)

2. Load All the Shorts

  • YouTube’s lazy—Shorts only load as you scroll. Let’s auto-scroll to grab ‘em all:
let scroll = setInterval(() => {
    window.scrollBy(0, 1000);
    if (window.innerHeight + window.scrollY >= document.body.scrollHeight) {
        clearInterval(scroll);
    }
}, 1000);
  • Pop this into the Chrome console (Ctrl + Shift + J or Cmd + Opt + J on Mac), hit Enter, and wait a few seconds until no new Shorts load. Patience, grasshopper!

3. Unleash the Scraping Code

  • Copy the main code above, paste it into the console, and smash Enter.
  • Boom! You’ll get a glorious block of output like
Short Scrapping


4. Get It into a Spreadsheet

  • Click and drag to select the output (skip any VM prefix if it sneaks in), then copy it (Ctrl + C or Cmd + C).
  • Fire up Excel or Google Sheets, paste the data (Ctrl + V or Cmd + V), and watch it split into four neat columns: Title, View Count, URL, and Thumbnail.
  • Your spreadsheet will look like a data chef’s masterpiece:
Sample Spreadsheet data for Shorts


5. Play with Your Data (and Eat Some Snacks)

  • Sort by view count to find your viral Shorts (Priti’s paneer tikka is probably killing it).
  • Use thumbnail URLs to make a drool-worthy gallery for your next pitch.
  • Whip up charts to show off your channel’s growth – because nothing says “I’m awesome” like a good bar graph.

How to Open and View a YouTube Shorts Link

A YouTube Shorts link follows this format:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/VIDEO_ID

You can open a Shorts link directly in any browser, but it will usually load in the vertical Shorts player. To view it as a regular YouTube video, replace /shorts/VIDEO_ID with /watch?v=VIDEO_ID in the URL bar and press Enter.

This is useful when you want to copy the full video URL, view the title and description clearly, or open the Short on desktop.

The same VIDEO_ID works for thumbnails, analytics tools, and API calls.

Pro Tips (Because You’re Basically a Hacker Now)

  • Don’t Overdo It: Scraping like you’re mining Bitcoin might make YouTube raise an eyebrow (hello, CAPTCHAs). Keep it chill.
  • YouTube’s Sneaky Updates: The Youtube (m.youtube.com) loves changing its layout. If the code breaks, right-click > Inspect to snoop on new selectors for titles or thumbnails.
  • Craving More? Want upload dates or likes? The YouTube Data API is your next adventure, but it needs an API key. Holler if you want a guide!
  • Python Vibes: If JavaScript isn’t your jam, you can do this with Python’s BeautifulSoup or Selenium. Drop a comment for a Python remake!

Why This Is Cooler Than a Cucumber (and a Bit AI-ish)

Scraping Shorts is like giving your channel X-ray vision – you see what’s popping and what’s not in seconds. It’s also a gateway to web scraping, which is basically AI’s nerdy cousin. Imagine feeding this data to an AI to predict your next viral Short or summarize Priti’s recipes for a chatbot. (Siri, make me paneer tikka!) The future’s calling, and it’s got data.

Oh, and speaking of awesome Shorts, go check out @cook-with-priti! Her quick recipes are perfect for when you’re hungry but too lazy to spend hours in the kitchen. Subscribe, try her hacks, and maybe scrape her Shorts to see which dish is stealing the show.

Let’s Keep the Party Going

You’re now a Shorts-scraping legend! Run the code, play with your data, and tell me in the comments how it went. Did Priti’s chocolate mug cake Short blow up your spreadsheet? Got ideas for the next coding adventure – maybe a Python scraper or an AI recipe generator?

If you need the code for scraping regular YouTube videos too, drop a comment below, and I’ll hook you up! Hit me up, and let’s make more tech magic. Until then, keep coding, keep eating, and stay epic!

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