--- id: date-guesser version: "2.1.4" license: MIT license_treatment: permissive maintenance: abandoned --- # date-guesser — Extract publication dates from web pages License: permissive · Maintenance: abandoned · Downloads: 88.5K/mo ## What it is and what it does date-guesser is a library that attempts to identify publication dates from web pages by combining heuristics across multiple signals: URL path patterns, HTML metadata tags, and embedded date strings. It returns not just a date but also an accuracy level (ranging from full datetime precision to partial date or no match) and a description of which method successfully extracted the date. The package was developed for the mediacloud project to handle real-world news and blog content where publication dates are scattered across different page elements with varying reliability. It prioritizes trustworthy sources over more precise but less reliable ones—for instance, preferring a date found in the URL structure over a more specific timestamp buried in user comments. However, the package is no longer maintained; its last release was in August 2019. Use it for: - Bulk-extract publication dates from news articles and blog posts during web scraping or content archival workflows - Determine article freshness and temporal relevance when indexing or searching web content - Validate or fill missing publication metadata in content management systems by cross-checking multiple date sources - Benchmark date extraction accuracy in media analysis pipelines, as the package includes comparison metrics against other tools ## Worth the install? AI-flagged interpretation of the facts above — verify before relying. Extracts publication dates from web pages by analyzing URL patterns and HTML content, returning both the extracted date and a confidence measure of its accuracy. No. While the package has low install friction and a permissive license, it has been abandoned since August 2019 with no maintenance or updates. Any bugs, compatibility issues with modern Python or dependency versions, or gaps in date format support will not be addressed. For active projects requiring publication date extraction, consider maintained alternatives or build a custom solution tailored to your specific content sources. ## Install pip install date-guesser uv add date-guesser poetry add date-guesser ## Installing date-guesser Before you install: Low install friction with four straightforward runtime dependencies. However, the package is archived and abandoned as of August 2019, with no maintenance or updates since its last release over five years ago. License in practice: MIT license permits free use, modification, and distribution with minimal restrictions, making it legally safe to adopt for most projects. Quickstart: pip install date-guesser from date_guesser import guess_date, Accuracy guess = guess_date(url='https://www.example.com/2017/10/13/article.html', html='') print(guess.date) # datetime object print(guess.accuracy) # Accuracy enum value print(guess.method) # string describing extraction method Verify before relying: - Whether the package handles modern web page structures and date formats reliably, given its abandonment since 2019 - Compatibility with current versions of beautifulsoup4 and lxml, which may have breaking changes since the package's last release - Performance and accuracy on non-English language content, acknowledged as a known limitation in the documentation ## Package facts - License: MIT (permissive) - Python support: unspecified - Install friction: low - Maintenance: abandoned - Downloads: 88.5K/month (top 15,000 on PyPI) - Known vulnerabilities: none known ## Tags extract publication date from webpage, web page date detection, article publication date extraction, guess date from html url, news article date parser, content date extraction, web scraping date finder, web-scraping, date-extraction, archived [View on SkillFed](https://skillfed.io/packages/date-guesser) · [View on PyPI](https://pypi.org/project/date-guesser/)