To begin with, let me state that spending time picking categories is probably a huge waste of time and you'd be more efficient just making more videos. Youtube has existed for many, many years. It's possible that categories had a more important role in it in the past, and then they tried to replace categories with tags, and then they tried to replace tags with hashtags, and now there's 3 different ways to categorize a video but zero ways to search for videos in any given category on Youtube. So maybe this is all pointless. Well, to be fair, the "Education" category could be the sole exception for this.
The "Howto & Style" category is likely for things like DIY (Do-It-Yourself) videos and makeup tutorials, not for tutorials teaching how to use software. Presumably, using the computer is considered some sort of science, and that's why it ends up in the "Education" category, together with math lessons. I genuinely don't believe this makes a lot of sense. As mentioned previously, there's a "Tips" subcategory, why is it restricted to computer tips? Why sports tips, gaming tips, car tips, and makeup tips do not belong to this "Tips" subcategory? When you look at it understanding "Education" means "Science" in this context, it makes sense that they do not belong. But in such case, nothing belongs. What are science tips? Why are Youtube tips considered science tips according to Youtube?
The subcategories for "Education" on Youtube are documented not on Youtube, but on Google's documentation for SEO (Search Engine Optimization). You see, when you make a website, the code of a webpage may include some code that's not made for people to see with their web browsers, but for machines like Google to see. Google develops a feature and then says websites that add Google's code to their pages get to enjoy that feature. In this case, the code we're talking about is the LearningResource structure data markup. The code would look something like this:
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": ["VideoObject", "LearningResource"],
"name": "An introduction to Genetics",
"description": "Explanation of the basics of Genetics for beginners.",
"learningResourceType": "Concept Overview",
"educationalLevel": "High school (US)",
"contentUrl": "https://www.example.com/video/123/file.mp4",
"thumbnailUrl": [
"https://example.com/photos/1x1/photo.jpg",
"https://example.com/photos/4x3/photo.jpg",
"https://example.com/photos/16x9/photo.jpg"
],
"uploadDate": "2024-03-31T08:00:00+08:00"
}
</script>Observe above that learningResourceType has the value Concept Overview. This is the same value we find on Youtube's interface when uploading a new video.
We can find the rest of the subcategories on Google's documentation for LearningResource, which they call "Learning Video" because they only support this when it's a video. Written tutorials do not count for Google for some reason. Maybe because they own Youtube?
learningResourceType
[Warning:] You must provide at least one of the following properties: educationalLevel, educationalAlignment, or learningResourceType.
The type of contents in the video based on what the video tries to accomplish. This property can be used at the video level (if the video has only one content type) or at the clip level (if the video has more than one content type). The list below gives some examples of acceptable values. If your video doesn't fit in any of these values, you can create a new one, as we are considering new values to support. Note that if the value is not set to one listed below, the learning type information may not be used in any search features.
Concept overview: The video is explaining a topic or concept.
Problem walkthrough: The video shows the method or steps to solve an academic problem, such as a math or science word problem.
Real life example: The video shows how a concept is applied or used in real life.
Activity: The video shows a demonstration or application of a learning activity, such as an example, an improv game, a concept map, a peer review, or a forced debate.
Experiment: The video shows an experiment.
Lecture: The video shows a class, lecture, or webinar.
How-to: The video provides a method or series of steps to do something. For video that are solving procedural STEM problems, use the Problem walkthrough type.
Tips: The video is sharing tips and tricks.
https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/learning-video (2024-06-25)
So there you go. This is what each value means.
If you're still confused and you need a better, more concrete explanation, then I'm sorry but I doubt we're going to get it.
It's possible that Youtube doesn't make use of this information in any way or form, that it doesn't influence Youtube search or its algorithm, and it's only there so that Google can use it when people search for Youtube videos on Google.
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