Openverse is an

open-source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized sof ...

search engine A search engine is a software system designed to carry out web searches. They search the World Wide Web in a systematic way for particular information specified in a textual web search query. The search results are generally presented in a ...

for open content developed as part of the WordPress project. It searches Creative Commons licensed and

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work A creative work is a manifestation of creative effort including fine artwork (sculpture, paintings, drawing, sketching, performance art), dance, writing (literature), filmmaking, ...

content from dozens of different sources. The software is licensed under the

MIT License The MIT License is a permissive free software license originating at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the late 1980s. As a permissive license, it puts only very limited restriction on reuse and has, therefore, high license comp ...

. Openverse indexes over 600 million items.

History

In February 2017

Creative Commons Creative Commons (CC) is an American non-profit organization and international network devoted to educational access and expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has release ...

announced

CC Search Openverse is an open-source search engine for open content developed as part of the WordPress project. It searches Creative Commons licensed and public domain content from dozens of different sources. The software is licensed under the MIT Lice ...

, an open source search engine for open content, and released a

beta version A software release life cycle is the sum of the stages of development and maturity for a piece of computer software ranging from its initial development to its eventual release, and including updated versions of the released version to help impro ...

. A

stable version A software release life cycle is the sum of the stages of development and maturity for a piece of computer software ranging from its initial development to its eventual release, and including updated versions of the released version to help impro ...

of CC Search appeared in April 2019. In December 2020, after Creative Commons staff changes, CC Search and a few other projects no longer had the necessary staff capacity. CC Search and a few other projects went into maintenance mode, i.e. the services remained available but development was suspended. In April–May 2021,

Catherine Stihler Catherine Dalling Taylor Stihler (née Taylor; born 30 July 1973) is a Scottish former politician who is chief executive officer (CEO) of Creative Commons. A member of the Scottish Labour Party, she was a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) ...

(

) and

Matt Mullenweg Matthew Charles Mullenweg (born January 11, 1984) is an American entrepreneur and web developer living in Houston. He is known for developing the free and open source software, free and open-source web software WordPress, now managed by The WordP ...

(

WordPress Foundation WordPress (WP or WordPress.org) is a free and open-source content management system (CMS) written in hypertext preprocessor language and paired with a MySQL or MariaDB database with supported HTTPS. Features include a plugin architecture a ...

, Automattic Inc.) announced that CC Search joined the WordPress project. Automattic hired key members of the CC Search team and sponsors their contributions to the project as part of th
Five for the Future
initiative. A new name was also introduced, Openverse. Openverse is the successor to CC Search, developed of its code base. It aims to be a broader open content search engine, continue development work and expand features. The

owns the Openverse

trademark A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from others ...

and its other

intellectual property rights Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, cop ...

. In December of 2020, the CC Search domain name was redirected to Openverse. In January 2022, Openverse launched a redesigned user interface and support for searching audio files. In February 2023, Openverse moved to the domain https://openverse.org and refreshed the user interface: adding a search history for recent searches.

Search engine sources

Openverse searches content from over 45 different media sources, including

Wikimedia Commons Wikimedia Commons (or simply Commons) is a media repository of free-to-use images, sounds, videos and other media. It is a project of the Wikimedia Foundation. Files from Wikimedia Commons can be used across all of the Wikimedia projects in ...

Europeana Europeana is a web portal created by the European Union containing digitised cultural heritage collections of more than 3,000 institutions across Europe. It includes records of over 50 million cultural and scientific artefacts, brought togethe ...

, and

Flickr Flickr ( ; ) is an American image hosting and video hosting service, as well as an online community, founded in Canada and headquartered in the United States. It was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and was a popular way for amateur and professional ...

References

Episode 8: The Commons of Images – WP Briefing
podcast episode of Openverse

External links

* {{Official website
Openverse developer site

Openverse developer handbook

Openverse API

Openverse Git repositories
Internet search engines Open content

History

Search engine sources

See also

References

External links