I am sure many of you use this oEmbed feature in WordPress to embed content directly from popular websites such as Youtube and Twitter.
oEmbed definitely makes it easy to embed videos, images, tweets etc. in WordPress. All you have to do is simply insert the URL of the source in the content area of your WordPress blog.
But did you know that there are more than 30 such websites that you can directly embed content from in your WordPress blog?
In this post, we will explore oEmbed and the list of all those websites that you can simply use URL to embed content from in your WordPress blog.
oEmbed in WordPress
First, how does embedding content works in WordPress?
The embed feature in WordPress is powered by a format called oEmbed which allows an embedded representation of a URL on third party sites.
As defined in WordPress codex, oEmbed is a protocol for site A (such as your blog) to ask site B (such as YouTube) for the HTML needed to embed content from site B.
To embed content from one of the supporting websites, just past the resource URL own its own in the content area. For example, I have posted link for one of the tweets below.
WordPress will instantly render that content when you are on visual mode of your editor. This is what the above URL looks like instantly.
List of Supported Websites in WordPress
The WordPress codex maintains the list of all supported platforms as a Whitelist. I have looked into all of those platforms and tried embedded content from most of those services in this post (As this website is delivered over SSL, I didn’t include those that do not support SSL yet).
I hope the post makes you aware of the supported whitelist services so that you do not need to search for the embed code next time from these platforms.
The list is arranged alphabetically, so feel free to scroll down and just look for the platform that you want to confirm or see how the embed might look.
1. Animoto
WordPress lets you embed your videos from the Animoto platform. Animoto is a popular video platform used by over 13 million people.
The feature has been supported recently as of WordPress version 4.0.
2. Blip
Latest Update: support for Blip oEmbed has been discontinued as of WordPress version 4.4.
You can embed Blip video simply with its URL in WordPress content area.
Blip has been supported since WordPress version 2.9. This is what embedding video from Blip looks like.
3. CollegeHumor
Popular website CollegeHumor videos are supported by WordPress recently as of WordPress version 4.0.
4. DailyMotion
DailyMotion is a popular video sharing website and its videos have been supported for a long time since WordPress version 2.9.
5. EmbedArticles
EmbedArticles is another supported platform for various oEmbed types from the website. WordPress has been supporting since it version 3.9.
Note: Although this service has been listed on WordPress codex, I am not sure how popular it is currently or if users still embed articles from here.
6. Flickr Videos & Images
Flickr Videos & Images are the most popular and frequently used services on WordPress supported since version 2.9.
Here’s one of the images (taken by Luca Sartoni at recent WordCamp Europe 2015) embedded directly from Flickr.
URL used: https://flic.kr/p/v51Mad
7. FunnyOrDie.com
FunnyOrDie.com videos have been supported as of WordPress version 3.0.
8. Hulu
Streaming service – Hulu’s Videos are supported since WordPress version 2.9 making it easy to embed TV Shows and clips from Hulu.
9. Imgur
Imgur is a huge online image sharing community and WordPress supports embedding images since version 3.9.
10. Instagram
One of the most popular social media platforms, Instagram’s images can be embedded directly in WordPress posts. The feature has been supported since WordPress version 3.5.
Here’s an image that I took at WordCamp London and shared on WPism’s Instagram.
URL used: https://instagram.com/p/0gJ_DfNaRS/
11. iSnare
iSnare articles are supported to embed starting with version WordPress 2.9.
Note: Again, I am not sure how popular iSnare is today. It is difficult even to connect to the website.
12. Issuu
A popular digital publishing platform, Issuu’s documents are supported for embeds starting with recent WordPress 4.0.
13. Kickstarter
Kickstarter projects have been supported starting with the most recent release of WordPress 4.2.
This is what a Kickstarter project embed looks like;
URL used: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/johnonolan/ghost-just-a-blogging-platform
14. Meetup.com
There are several WordPress meetups organised via Meetup.com and it’s certainly worth to have support for it. Meetup.com events can be embedded starting with WordPress 3.9.
15. Mixcloud
MixCloud’s music and radio streams are supported as embed in WordPress starting with recent WordPress 4.0.
16. Photobucket
Photobucket is a popular image and video hosting website and its images have been supported for embeds starting with WordPress version 2.9.
17. PollDaddy
PollDaddy is an Automattic service that allows creating Polls, ratings, and surveys. Polls & Surveys from the platform are embeddable since WordPress 3.0.
Here’s what a poll will look with the url used below.
URL used: https://poll.fm/5cnk0
18. Rdio
Rdio is one of the leading music services and its Music service is supported as embeds in WordPress since WordPress 3.6.
19. Revision3
Powered by Discovery digital network, Revision3 produces weekly and daily TV episodes. Its TV shows have been supported as of WordPress 2.9.
20. Scribd
Scribd is a digital books and documents subscription service and its Documents can be embedded in WordPress since WordPress 2.9.
21. SlideShare
SlideShare is one of the most popular services to share your PowerPoint presentations, word documents and Adobe PDF portfolios. SlideShare’s Presentation slideshows have embeds support as of WordPress 3.5.
22. SmugMug
SmugMug is another photos and website service and its photos and galleries have been supported for oEmbed as of WordPress 3.0.
23. SoundCloud
SoundCloud is a popular online audio music service. Its music is supported for oEmbed as of WordPress 3.5. You can also learn more about its WordPress integration from their blog here.
Here’s a sample SoundCloud track shared below to see how it looks.
URL used: https://soundcloud.com/pat-strawser/sets/wordpress-tutorial
24. Spotify
One of the most popular music streaming services, Spotify is supported for embeds as of WordPress 3.6.
25. TED
TED has the best inspiring videos which are fully supported for embeds in WordPress since WordPress 4.0.
Here’s one of my favourite videos from TED to show you how it looks.
26. Tumblr
Tumblr is one of the most popular social networking websites and various content types from the platform are supported for oEmbed starting with WordPress 4.2.
27. Twitter
Twitter is probably one of the most used services to embed content (Tweets) into WordPress posts. One of the most popular social media platforms, Twitter’s content has been supported for oEmbed starting with WordPress 3.4.
Here’s how the first tweet from our Twitter profile looks like;
28. Vimeo
Vimeo is a popular video sharing website and its videos are supported for oEmbed starting with WordPress 2.9.
Here’s a video interview of WordPress co-founder Mike Little at WordCamp London embedded directly from Vimeo.
29. Vine
Vine is another popular social network for short and looping videos. Vine Videos have been supported as of recent WordPress 4.1.
Here’s what an embedded vine video looks like.
30. WordPress.tv
WordPress.tv is an official visual resource for all things WordPress. WordPress.tv videos are supported for oEmbed as of WordPress 2.9.
Here’s what a video embed of WordCamp Europe 2015 video on the WordPress.tv looks like;
31. YouTube
YouTube is the most popular video sharing website and its videos are supported for oEmbed as of WordPress 2.9. YouTube might be the most popular platform used for embeds in WordPress.
Here’s what an embedded video from YouTube looks like;
With WordPress 4.4, Oembed support has been added to five more websites.
Cloudup, Reddit Comments, ReverbNation, Speaker Deck, and VideoPress
32. Cloudup
Cloudup lets you share videos, photos, music, links and files by simply dragging and dropping. You can now include the links in your WordPress posts to automatically embed them.
33. Reddit Comments
Love participating on Reddit discussions? With support for Reddit comments, you can now embed Reddit comments directly in your blog posts.
34. ReverbNation
35. Speaker Deck
36. VideoPress
Future of oEmbed in WordPress
There will definitely be support for more and more platforms and services in WordPress. It all comes to how many WordPress users manually embed content (use embed code provided) from such platforms.
There has also been a recent discussion on supporting oEmbed for WordPress posts as well!
oEmbed as a technology and tool has indeed made sharing (and republishing) content easier for WordPress.
I hope the post helped you to explore some new and unknown whitelist of services that WordPress supports for oEmbeds.
I mostly use the feature to embed YouTube videos and tweets in my posts. Which platform do you use the most for oEmbeds? Did you find any new service?
