Openverse

After acquiring Flickr, Yahoo! launched a creative commons search engine in 2005.^[9]

Journalism.co.uk recommended CC Search in 2013 for journalists.^[10]

In February 2017, Creative Commons announced a new version of CC Search, an open-source search engine for open content, and released a beta version.^{[11][12][non-primary source needed]} As of 2018, the search pulled from 13 different sources.^[13] A stable version of CC Search appeared in April 2019.^{[14][12][non-primary source needed]}

In December 2020, after Creative Commons staff changes, CC Search and a few other projects no longer had the necessary staff capacity. Those services went into maintenance mode, with the services remaining available while development was suspended.^{[15][12][non-primary source needed]}

In April–May 2021, Catherine Stihler (Creative Commons) and Matt Mullenweg (WordPress Foundation, Automattic Inc.) announced that CC Search joined the WordPress project.^[16][17][18] Automattic hired key members of the CC Search team and sponsors their contributions to the project as part of the Five for the Future initiative.^{[17][non-primary source needed]} A new name was also introduced, Openverse.^{[19][non-primary source needed]} Openverse is the successor to CC Search, and is developed from the same code base of CC Search. It aims to be a broader open content search engine, continue development work and expand features.^{[19][non-primary source needed]} The WordPress Foundation owns the Openverse trademark and its other intellectual property rights.^{[20][non-primary source needed]} In December 2020, the CC Search domain name was redirected to Openverse.^{[21][non-primary source needed]}

In January 2022, Openverse launched a redesigned user interface and support for searching audio files.^{[22][non-primary source needed]}

In February 2023, Openverse moved to the domain https://openverse.org and refreshed the user interface: adding a search history for recent searches.^{[23][non-primary source needed]} In September 2023, Openverse won the OE Awards for Excellence in Open Infrastructure.^{[24][non-primary source needed]}

Openverse searches content from over 45 different media sources, including Wikimedia Commons, Europeana, and Flickr.^{[25][6][non-primary source needed]}

• Open content
• Episode 8: The Commons of Images – WP Briefing, podcast episode of Openverse