CC Search to join WordPress.org

The WordPress community has long advocated for a repository with GPL-compatible images, and it’s time to listen to that need. CC Search, a CC0 (Creative Commons Zero) image search engine, is joining the WordPress project with over 500 million openly licensed and public domain images discoverable from over 50 sources, audio and video soon to come.

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 started exploring ways we could keep it going. 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. This is an important first step to provide a long-term, sustainable challenger to proprietary libraries like Unsplash.

Automattic has hired key members of the CC Search team and will sponsor their contributions as part of our Five for the Future commitment. I look forward to seeing the project grow and welcome them to the WordPress community! Will share in a few weeks when everything is live and running on the site.

15 thoughts on “CC Search to join WordPress.org

  1. Great move, timely. Comes in sync with my plans to release more content under CC0. Thanks Matt for supporting the digital community, as ever!

  2. Thank you for your commitment toward open content. We firmly believe in CC0 photos, unlike many other libraries that switched their licenses in recent years.

  3. Looking forward to the power this search will unleash! Also, it’s great to have community, open alternatives to Unsplash, Pexels, etc, even if their work is quite remarkable in itself.

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