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Adding interesting features to blogs and other web pages, like YouTube videos and Flickr slideshows is getting downright easy, in many cases -- as easy as creating and doing a blog.

Not only do you not have to write any HTML code, you don't even have to view and root through a site's HTML source.

All you have to be able to do is to copy and paste it HTML accurately. And maybe have done some searching to find what you're looking for.

YouTube, for example, shows two ways to access each of its videos: the URL proper, and also the HTML code to "embed" a clickable view within your page. YouTube goes even further, providing customization options including "include/don't include 'related videos,'" and borders. The only thing I haven't (yet) figured out is how to center an embedded YouTube video within my page.

For example, here's my YouTube video of a robot bookscanner: the URL, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2SzGcylZVE, and the "embed" code, as provided by YouTube, which I used to embed it on this web page (I've split up some of the lines to make the code clearer for us HTML amateurs):

 

<object 
   width="425" height="344">
<param 
   name="movie" 
   value="http://www.youtube.com/v/h2SzGcylZVE&hl=en&fs=1">
</param>
<param 
   name="allowFullScreen" 
   value="true">
</param>
<embed 
  src="http://www.youtube.com/v/h2SzGcylZVE&hl=en&fs=1" 
  type="application/x-shockwave-flash" 
  allowfullscreen="true" 
  width="425" height="344">
</embed>
</object>

There are third-party snippets, as well. Some require a little more knowledge of, and access to, what you're doing, like Exploding Boy's Add Links for Del.icio.us, Digg, and More to Blog Posts, which require access to your PHP files.

But others are as easy as YouTube's, like PictoBrowser, a "Free Flickr Slideshow for your Site or Blog." PictoBrowser turns a selection of your Flickr photos into a slideshow can embed (add) this turn a blog post or web page. (Kudo's to TechRevu editor Ernest Lilley for turning this one up.)

To create a PictoBrowse slide show (i.e., the HTML for one), find an existing PictoBrowse slide show, like the one in Ernest's BoltBus write-up. PictoBrowse asks for your Flickr screen name (but NOT your password, it's clearly searching for stuff you've designated as publicly available), has you select what you want slide-show'd, and then offers you code ready to copy and paste, or offers you the option to customize -- easy!