WordPress and Creative Commons Search are expected to collaborate in coming days. As a result, free to use images can be run easily in the future.
WordPress parent company Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg has made a decision to bring back CC search after hearing the news that it has been on the verge of shutting down. He has said,
“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.”
CC Search may able to continue its operation with its new home within WordPress.org. Overhead cost can be removed as the WordPress will be providing the hosting cost of 500 million images.
Further Matt Mullenweg has said “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.”
Creative Commons has been a nonprofit organization that offers search experience without any ads. Till now, CC Search has depended on the donation for its operations. Due to removal of the hosting cost, it may not have to rely on the user’s generosity any more.
To help CC Search further, WordPress is also taking in the important players and sponsoring the projects as well. Reliance on the volunteer developers is seen so far for the maintenance of the open source project.
For their first work, some of the volunteers may be paid also. However, it is not clear yet whether volunteers or members are going to be hired as the full time engineers or not.
It is definitely a huge deal for Creative Commons. Through this platform, publishers are helped to find licensed image openly. CC Search has been helping its users from the year 2001.
Mullenweg has also added that audio and video support will be offered by CC Search in the future also. However, assistance from WordPress may be required on the occasion.
More details may be shared in the new few weeks as CC Search starts to run on WordPress.
Due to these changes, it is not clear whether site owner of WordPress has to go through some changes or not. One of the benefits is certainly continued access of CC Search.
Right now, WordPress plugin is offered by Creative Common officially for free use licenses to their content. In the future, it can be offered natively with WordPress.
Official statement has not been released yet by Creative Commons CEO Ryan Merkley. However, he has expressed his thoughts on this matter and said “When I started CC Search, I always hoped it would become part of the infrastructure of the Internet. [Matt Mullenweg] and I first talked about CC Search in 2018, and he immediately saw the potential. I’m so happy to see this happen. It’s great for WordPress, and great for the Commons.”