As contributors seek to integrate more search engines as External Sources on Creative Commons Search to enhance its effectiveness, this guide will help them identify important factors to bear in mind when considering these search engines in line with the goals of Creative Commons Search.
The quality of results is at the fore of criteria that contributors should consider when suggesting new External Sources. Below are factors that should be considered in that regard :
- Correct License / Legal Tool Identification
- Ability to select License
- Attribution Example or Guidance
Quality is important but so is quantity, hence our ideal External Source would be one with the ability to search the web in-depth and return relevant search results in numbers for users to explore.
As advocates of Open Knowledge, we prioritize search engines whose owner(s) and conducts promote Open Knowledge. (What is Open Knowledge?)
Changes in API and query structure of external sources can lead to broken links in our program. API stability refers to some level of guarantee from a project that its API will only change in defined ways in the future, or will not change at all.
While the quality of the result is more important to us, the rate of adoption and popularity of the Search Engine is also a factor worth considering.
Although not currently a factor, we pay attention to how our external sources are funded.