The web is a minefield in many ways, but even something as simple as an image or a sound can cause legal problems. Google's own search engine offers special filters to locate material with flexible licenses, and we also have more advanced engines like Pexels and Pixabay, but today I would like to mention Openverse. Direct heir of CC Search, Openverse enables access to more than 800 million elements under public domain and Creative Commons.
If you're thinking about starting a project, you should pay attention when looking for content online. It's generally not hard to find material that has permissive licenses, and many platforms offer convenient packages (Illustrations, DrawUp, UnDraw, IconDuck, Vecteezy, the list goes on), but the last thing you need is an unexpected 'cease and desist'. So we come to Openverse, a search engine for public domain and Creative Commons content with more than 800 million images and sounds.
Openverse: 800 million images and sounds at your fingertips
From a technical point of view, Openverse is the successor of CC Search, which we discussed in May 2019. That project joined WordPress in 2021, but its main objective remains the same. Now, Openverse reminds us that does not verify the information of the license for individual works. While it presents the creator's name, the source, and the latest available data, it is the user's responsibility to do the final check.
The available filters are divided into three categories: Type of use (“Commercial”, and “Modify or Adapt”), Licenses (public domain, CC0 and all Creative Commons variants), and SafeSearch, since some images may present sensitive and/or NSFW content.
At the moment, Openverse is limited to images and audio, with the possibility to explore the 'Top 240' of each category. If you can't find what you're looking for, the engine offers at the bottom links to external sources like Google Images, the Nappy image bank, and the Open Clip Art Library. Once again, it is the end user who must confirm the status of the licenses.
Openverse is free, requires no accounts, and has a Spanish translation.
Official site: Click here
