Why doesn't youtube shut down their public web api?
ShaunaTheDead @ ShaunaTheDead @kbin.social Posts 0Comments 243Joined 2 yr. ago

ShaunaTheDead @ ShaunaTheDead @kbin.social
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I haven't seen anyone mention it yet, but a reason might be that providing an API is cheaper than web scraping.
If people really want access to your data, they can just scrape your website, but that requires loading all the data through the website itself which requires loading millions or billions of video thumbnails, comments, descriptions, recommendations, etc. It's much cheaper for them to send a JSON through an API, even though they might know that some people are trying to undermine them by using that data to circumvent their advertising.