Will we ever have more flexibility and options for embedding video?
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I submitted the following comments/request several months ago, as a reply to my original request/question, “when will WordPress.com give users the ability to embed video from a much wider range of sources than the very very limited sources that are currently supported?”
It’s long overdue that WordPress.com give users the ability to embed video that other competing blog services offer to ALL of their users.
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Thank you for your response. Your reply got me to thinking, “what other video content that’s published by major media outlets can’t be embedded on a WordPress.com blog?
After just scratching the surface, I was shocked to discover that, aside from YouTube, Vimeo and a handful of other, lesser known web resources, your customers are denied the ability to embed a ridiculous amount of the video content that is available.
Listed at the end of this message are web sites from which we can’t embed videos, and this is just a tiny, tiny sample. After looking all that up I was absolutely astounded and deeply disappointed. In fact, it is absolutely outrageous that WordPress.com doesn’t allow its customers to embed videos from any of the major television news outlets, none of the major sports channels, none of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and probably only what would amount to a thimble-full of television channels that are available.
Anticipating a response that millions of videos, including many published by the media outlets and sports leagues/conferences I mentioned below, are available on YouTube or Vimeo, that is true. However, in the vast majority of cases, they often publish abbreviated versions of content that is available on their web sites at full length. There is also a lot more content published on their web sites that they don’t make available on YouTube because they want the traffic on their web sites rather than have it all go to YouTube/Google.
Again, I’m aware of the security concerns that iFrame code and especially Flash, creates, as I run all kinds of servers and networks professionally. However, after some testing on other blog platforms, I can embed videos from ALL of the web sites I listed below. Are they less secure? Probably. But that begs the question: do the security concerns outweigh the benefits?
Given the massive amount of video content that your customers can’t include on their WordPress.com blogs, which puts them at a great disadvantage against competing blogs/web sites, the answer to that question is a resounding “no.”
Supporting my belief is the fact that your WordPress VIP’s are able to post videos with iFrame embed code. I’m not mistaken, they can embed videos with Flash and Javascript embed code as well.
Obviously, you have the ability to allow your customers to embed video content using these embed codes. As such, whether it is WordPress.com’s intent or not, it appears that the vast majority of video embedding is supposed to be an ultra-premium feature available only if you’re willing to pay for it…a lot.
Of course, this is exactly the opposite of other blogging platforms, where there is no additional cost for this capability.
Don’t get me wrong…I love WordPress.com. I’ve even paid for several upgrades for both blogs I run. However, this constraint has become a serious problem for both of those blogs. It places a severe limitation on what I/we can publish and places a huge damper on the quality of both blogs.
This issue should move to the top of WordPress.com’s “to-do list,” in terms of problems that need to be addressed. It must be addressed soon—this has been a growing problem for years. A solution is long overdue. Please give us the ability to embed video the way we should be able to.
Thank you.
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Requires Flash
CBS News – http://www.cbsnews.com
CBS Sports – http://www.cbssports.com
CBS Sports Network – http://www.cbssportsnetwork.com
CSPAN/CSPAN2 – http://www.c-span.org
KCET (major independent TV station in Los Angeles) – http://www.kcet.org
Sports Illustrated – http://www.si.comUSA Today – http://www.usatoday.com
Requires iframe Support
ABC News – http://www.abcnews.com
ABC7 (Los Angeles) – http://www.abc7.com
CNN.com – http://www.cnn.com
History.com (History Channel/H2) – http://www.history.com
Destination America – http://www.destinationamerica.com
Discovery Channel – http://www.discoverchannel.com
Major League Baseball (includes all MLB team sites) – http://www.mlb.com
MSNBC – http://www.msnbc.com
National Geographic – http://www.nationalgeographic.com
NBC News – http://www.nbcnews.com
NBC Sports – http://www.nbcsports.com
NBC Sports Network: http://www.nbcsportsnetwork.com
NHL.com (and all 30 NHL team web sites) – http://www.nhl.com
Science Channel – http://www.sciencechannel.com
Travel Channel – http://www.travelchannel.comRequires Javascript Support
ABC Sports/ESPN – http://espn.go.com
CBS2 (KCBS TV, Los Angeles) and KCAL 9 (Los Angeles; both stations have same owner, same web site) – http://losangeles.cbslocal.com
MyFoxLA.com (KTTV 11, Los Angeles) – http://www.myfoxla.com
Pacific 12 Conference (includes videos available on athletic web site for all Pac 12 schools) – http://www.pac-12.comOther Script
KTLA.com (KTLA 5, Los Angeles) – http://www.ktla.com
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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Hi Gann,
I understand your concerns and I appreciate the thought you put into this — I will certainly forward to our team the list of video sources you provided, so they can consider adding support for them. When adding new media embeds to WordPress.com, priority tends to be given to sources with oEmbed support (such as YouTube and Vimeo).
I don’t anticipate any changes made to what code is allowed here at WordPress.com, for example to allow iFrames, as security is immensely important. An issue on one site could potentially affect the millions of other sites hosted here. (WordPress.com VIP sites are managed a bit differently and, thus, have different requirements and options available.)
If WordPress.com doesn’t meet your needs, and you’d like the option to embed videos from more sources right away, you may want to consider moving to a self-hosted WordPress site using the free software from WordPress.org. We have more details about exporting your content and Moving a Blog, and details about the differences between WordPress.com and WordPress.org, to help you with that process.
Please let me know if I can do anything more to help.
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