Open Educational Resources

CC Search to Join WordPress

• By Rhea Kelly
• 05/12/21

CC Search, Creative Commons' search engine for finding openly licensed and public domain content, is joining the WordPress project. The tool allows users to access more than 500 million images that are free to use, share and build upon, with audio and video search functions in the works.

WordPress has shared its intentions to "expand the [CC Search] service in both depth and breadth," commented Creative Commons CEO Catherine Stihler, in a blog post. "We are proud of having proven the CC Search concept and launched the product, and excited for it to benefit from the vast technical resources and enthusiastic community at the WordPress project."

"I am a long-time supporter of Creative Commons and their influential work on open content licenses, and when we heard they were considering shutting down their CC Search engine we immediately starting exploring ways we could keep it going," said Matt Mullenweg, founding developer of WordPress, in a blog post. "I am eager to give a new home to their open search product on WordPress.org in continued commitment to open source freedoms, and providing this community resource for decades to come."