Embedded content has grown into a major tool throughout online media, despite some legal uncertainty about the new copyright complications associated with sharing content in this way. It’s perhaps for that reason that Facebook, with over 1 billion users, has been so reluctant to allow other sites to embed their content. However, after a testing period with selected news agencies, all Facebook users now have the option to access an embed code for external websites.

Although many sites have previously linked applications or commenting systems with Facebook, this is the first time content from the social network itself has been made openly embeddable elsewhere. Facebook users logged into their account also have the ability to comment or ‘like’ content through the embed itself. Twitter has long-since allowed sharing of tweets, and introduced more robust embedding tools in December 2011. Facebook will likely be trying to gain an equal prominence throughout online media.

Only content publically shared will be be embeddable, so posts with customised or ‘friends only’ privacy settings will not be available for embedding. Facebook users, as ever, should be vigilant of their personal privacy settings when using the site if they do not want material accessible elsewhere.

To embed a Facebook post, users should click on the arrow at the top of a post, copy the code and insert it into their site’s HTML.