Creative Commons, a nonprofit organization that provides a flexible copyright licenses for authors and artists, today announced that Google now enables filtering for Creative Commons-licensed content.

Following the example of Yahoo!’s CC-search that was released in March 2004 and then incorporated into Yahoo!s Advanced Search page, Google has incorporated a new element into its Advanced Search page that allows users to filter their search by Usage Rights. By choosing to search for content that allows some form of reuse or can be freely modified, adapted or built upon, search results with be limited to content that is made available under a Creative Commons license.

Creative Commons CEO & Chairman, Lawrence Lessig said: Creative Commons is thrilled by Google’s decision to join Yahoo! in enabling the spread of CC-licensed content. Now two major search engines recognize Creative Commons licenses; this confirms that CC is an important part of the infrastructure of the Internet.

Creative Commons own search page at now gives site visitors the ability to search using either Google or Yahoo!.