

Embedly is a Gem: How Kalimba was Built - doki_pen
http://blog.embed.ly/embedlys-gem

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christopherslee
Not trying to troll, but whenever I read the embed.ly home page, I can never
figure out what I think the company actually does, when I should want to use
it, or how I should use it?

Is it a set of widgets for showing things like people's twitter/rss/whatever
feeds?

Or, if I'm building a website, I can give embed.ly a URL and it will give me
back a nicely formatted (sans-ads) version for my website?

Someone help me understand?

~~~
michaelbuckbee
I've been evaluating using Embedly for a new project of mine and think that
I've sorted out their offering.

From their FAQ: What is Embedly?

"It is a solution that automatically converts posted links into embedded media
on the fly. With its set of APIs, tools and libraries you are able to create
unique visual experiences by embedding videos, images, rich media, RSS entries
and article previews."

They have 2 confusingly named tiers: "API" and "Pro".

API: Allows you to embed stuff from a limited (albeit widely used) set of
websites, stuff like: YouTube, Twitter, Digg, etc.

PRO: Allows you to embed stuff and get metadata back about ANY url (the big
selling point).

It was the launch of Pro that prompted them to create the Kalimba website
which showcases their ability to create the embeds from any random website.

Pricing for Kalimba Pro is at: <https://pro.embed.ly/pricing> \- there is no
Free plan.

If you're looking for an open source / roll your own option you might consider
the Ruby Readability gem - <https://github.com/sspinc/readability> and regex
out images+videos from the pages yourself.

~~~
doki_pen

      Pricing for Kalimba Pro is at: https://pro.embed.ly/pricing - there is no Free plan.
    

Kalimba is just the name of hn.embed.ly. I think you mean pricing for _Embedly
Pro_.

~~~
michaelbuckbee
Doh, you are correct.

