Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google


New CC Search Offers One-Stop Access to 300 Million Images

  • By Dian Schaffhauser
  • 05/02/19
CC Search

A new CC Search front end debuts this week. Developed by Creative Commons and a community of volunteer developers, the tool allows users to find and use some 300 million images from openly licensed and public domain works.

The search function provides a single place to look for images from 19 collections, including Flickr (which is currently the source for the bulk of the content — some 289 million pictures), Bēhance, Geograph Britain and Ireland and DeviantArt.

CC Search result

While the search currently encompasses only images, the effort will eventually add other media types, such as open texts and audio, later this year. The eventual goal: to allow people to find any of the 1.4 billion Creative Commons-licensed and public domain works on the web through the search page.

Thanks to feedback provided by beta testers, the search page now provides a cleaner design and "better navigation and filters," according to Jane Park, CC's director of product and research, who leads the work for CC Search. Attribution options have been streamlined and "clear channels" have been added for providing feedback on the functionality of the site and specific image reuses.

"Under the hood," she added, search loading time and search phrase relevance have been improved, and analytics have been added "to better understand when and how the tools are used."

According to the CC Search roadmap, later this quarter the search function will sport advanced filters, the ability to browse without entering a search term, improved accessibility and a mobile user experience.

CC Search is part of the Creative Commons website.

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.

Featured

  • stylized illustration of people conversing on headsets

    AI and Our Next Conversations in Higher Education

    Ryan Lufkin, the vice president of global strategy for Instructure, examines how the focus on AI in education will move from experimentation to accountability.

  • AI word on microchip and colorful light spread

    Microsoft Unveils Maia 200 Inference Chip to Cut AI Serving Costs

    Microsoft recently introduced Maia 200, a custom-built accelerator aimed at lowering the cost of running artificial intelligence workloads at cloud scale, as major providers look to curb soaring inference expenses and lessen dependence on Nvidia graphics processors.

  • large group of college students sitting on an academic quad

    Student Readiness: Learning to Learn

    Melissa Loble, Instructure's chief academic officer, recommends a focus on 'readiness' as a broader concept as we try to understand how to build meaningful education experiences that can form a bridge from the university to the workplace. Here, we ask Loble what readiness is and how to offer students the ability to 'learn to learn'.

  • Blue metallic mesh fabric folds

    Microsoft Acquires Osmos for Agentic AI Data Engineering

    In a strategic move to reduce time-consuming manual data preparation, Microsoft has acquired Seattle-based startup Osmos, specializing in agentic AI for data engineering.