Zemanta Is Not My Friend

Now what this has to do with what I'm writing, I dunno. But Zemanta gave it to me, so it must relate, right? Image via Wikipedia

Word Press has a rather neat feature. Or maybe its an associate program; I’m not sure right now and frankly I’d rather be doing other things right now. In any case, it’s called Zemanta.It provides links (as for-instance, the links in this paragraph it gave) and the occasional picture. I’ve been using it in lieu of adding more to my image library (and thus eating up space), but I’m beginning to think it isn’t worth the hassle. At least on the image front.  Because the God damn thing is screwing with my post, and that ain’t happening.

Now what am I ranting about this time?  Well, when I just use Zemanta for the images, the post will look more or less how I want it to.  But if I add even one picture on my own, it fudges things up.

For instance, here’s a comparison shot from a recent post of mine:

The image on the left is how things should look with caption.  Notice the gray box conforming to the image itself.  In this particular post, every captioned image looks like that.

Except for the one on the right.  Which is different.

I admit it.  I’m a persnickety person when it comes to my blog.  That’s fine.  But Zemanta is mucking with the code where it hasn’t been asked to.

Want proof?  Here we go.  First of straight up Zemanta image (in the green box, click for a clearer image):

Here is an image via the Word Press media library. Note: this is from a different post, one that doesn’t use Zemanta in it at all:

Now here’s the offending image’s code:

You might notice a certain dearth in square brackets (these: [ ]) and an overabundance of chevrons (these: < >).  Now where could those square brackets be.

Why, further up on the page.  In front of an image that has no caption to it.  Behold (the yellow and green boxes respectively.):

Now why is that I wonder?

Could Zemanta and Word Press not like each other?  Are they having a little spat?  Or is it just me?

One post I used Zemanta in, it (or, in fairness, Word Press) took the last few paragraphs of the post and crammed the whole thing in the last caption in the post.  Why?  I don’t know why.

I shouldn’t have to go in and fix the HTML.  It should be what I see is what I get.  That it isn’t isn’t good.

Now again, in fairness, this might not be Zemanta’s fault.  But it sure as hell feels like it from where I’m sitting.  Odds are, it keeps up, I’m going to have to stop using it.

And now for something completely different: Someone praising Zemanta:

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