This morning I’m fixing older blog posts. There are still some instances that look like:
<object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/L2unAeJ2qhA&rel=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/L2unAeJ2qhA&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>
That’s from a post from 2007: William Gibson, Gravy, and a Video
I look for the video, by loading up http://www.youtube.com/v/L2unAeJ2qhA, which, surprise! shows me an error:
Luckily there was some context for what the video was. I had written “Bonus: we live in a world where we can pull up videos like this anytime — it’s, aptly, a peppy song about feeling sad:” – and on the YouTube page I could see it was for The Muffs Sad Tomorrow.
WordPress can automatically expand a YouTube link to a proper embed code, using oEmbed — turning https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsxyaZhdW1s into <iframe title="The Muffs - Sad Tomorrow (Video)" width="500" height="375" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vsxyaZhdW1s?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>
I forget when that capability was added, but there’s documentation about the ease of adding YouTube links on YouTube Embed in the WordPress documentation. That documentation refers to using WordPress “Blocks” which given the volume of legacy content on my site I’ve avoided.
oEmbed is a great idea! When it works it makes the web far better. Sadly, using oEmbed for things like Instagram doesn’t work. Facebook removed support for transcluding content several years ago. Yet another way the large stacks make the web worse for us real people.
Kim Shattuck, the lead singer for The Muffs, died in 2019.
My whole life is a drag
Baby listen to me
When I go away, will you care?
I feel naked and weird
Do you see what I hear?
Maybe one day I’ll die, who cares
