Silverlight iFrame blocked by WordPress.com!

Ivana Tilca contacted me the other day because she had a problem posting Silverlight content on her blog. On further inspection it turns out it’s impossible to post Silverlight content using the iFrame method on WordPress.com hosted blogs! And since you have limited access to the code set in these blogs I’m guessing the very cumbersome JavaScript method will be equally unsuccessful.

Why is this important? With Silverlight, Microsoft wants to put up some serious competition against Adobe Flash. But if the embedding code is being blocked because it is unsafe (and iFrames are unsafe) it means people will chose other media to put on their blogs – no point putting it there if it doesn’t work. I have yet to test any other blogging services but WordPress.com is one of the majors and if Silverlight content is pretty much excluded from these blogs it is a big deal.

Considering Silverlight is being touted as a viable alternative to viral video sharing, this is a problem that needs to be fixed asap.

As for the reasoning behind blocking iFrame and JavaScript embeds in WordPress.com it actually makes a lot of sense:

You can embed malicious code and other nasty crap using these codes. And once something is posted on the service WordPress becomes somewhat responsible for the content. So if someone posts malicious content like a virus using an iFrame on their service, you can be sure people will sue them for it. Or the whole service can go down like what happened to MySpace.

True – WordPress.com allows certain “approved” JavaScript and iFrame codes – and Microsoft better get in touch with them immediately (by clicking here) – but the current embed options, both JavaScript and iFrame, are lackluster, cumbersome and not at all workable. There needs to be a better and less wishywashy solution if this format is to succeed. Otherwise people like Ivana are going to go crazy and abandon the format. And that’s not good.