How can we embed videos from "unapproved" sites?

  • Unknown's avatar
    davidburnce · Member ·

    I love WordPress, and I think you guys provide far and away the best, most robust blogging platform around. But there is one area where you are uncharacteristically behind the curve, and I can’t figure out why: embedding videos. It’s only possible to upload videos from a select handful of websites. True, much of what people want can be found on YouTube, but clips from The Daily Show, The Colbert Report and Funny or Die, for example, can only be uploaded from those specific websites. There used to be a service called Vodpod, to which you could upload videos from any other site, and through that they could be added to a WP blog. Unfortunately Vodpod was bought out by another service called Lockerz, which has been useless for this functionality.

    I’ve talked to people who use Blogger, Tumblr and other platforms, and all have said that they can embed any video from any site. So why is this an issue with WordPress? Being able to embed videos is pretty much Blogging 101. Just a few weeks ago, your Daily Post column talked up the ability to add videos and how much they can enhance a blog post, yet our ability to take full advantage of such a basic blogging tool is hampered by a limitation that no other platform seems to have.

    I’ve got to think this is something that countless other WP users would love to see resolved, and that the ability to upload any video from any website is something that thousands of users would appreciate and take advantage of. Surely this is more important to people than having the login page repeatedly re-designed. These various content providers make it easy. The embed codes are there. They want people to share the videos they provide. Now we just want WordPress to catch up to the rest of the blogging community and allow us to take full advantage of what should be a basic service.

    Is there a plan for universal video uploading? What is the timeline for implementing this functionality?

    Thanks so much for your attention. The services and support you provide is greatly appreciated.

    Best,
    David

  • staff-blorbo · Staff ·

    Thanks for taking the time to write in, and this is something we are actively looking into. The loss of Vodpod was indeed a bitter pill to swallow, and we have been looking for a way to replace it ever since.

    At the core of the issue, we can’t allow iframe and Flash embeds for security reasons, and that is unfortunately what most video services offer for embed codes.

    For the supported providers listed at http://en.support.wordpress.com/videos/ we either use their provided oEmbed system (where you just paste in the video URL), or make our own clean/safe embed code work via a custom shortcode.

    Not many services have jumped on the oEmbed bandwagon yet, which really limits what we can support. Having something like Vodpod which effectively provided a clean/safe embed for us from all video sites is definitely something that we want to offer, and we’re still working on it.

  • Unknown's avatar
    davidburnce · Member ·

    Many thanks for the reply. I appreciate the explanation. Does WordPress offer additional levels or types of security that other platforms don’t, limiting the ability to offer embedding from any site while other blogging systems don’t have that issue?

    Well, like many users, I hope there will be a solution soon that allows you to provide the same security but also makes it possible to embed from any site. There are so many times when I want to enhance my posts with clips from The Daily Show, The Colbert Report and Funny or Die, or build posts around segments on those sites, but can’t do it.

    Thanks again for the answer, and for working to solve this issue!

    -David-

  • staff-blorbo · Staff ·

    Hm, that’s a tough question to answer.

    It is definitely true that bloggers with malicious intents could use Flash or Javascript embeds to infect a visitor’s computer, or use iframes to embed an entire malicious website.

    Most services take the route of blacklisting known bad sources, leaving you to embed from almost anywhere without restriction. However, new bad sources are created and discovered every day, so we take a the more cautious route of only allowing specific sources.

    I wouldn’t say that any specific approach is proven to be better overall, as there is a trade-off to both routes.

  • Unknown's avatar
    davidburnce · Member ·

    Thanks again for explaining. Here’s hoping there will soon be a way for us to have our cake and eat it too.

  • staff-blorbo · Staff ·

    You’re welcome!

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