The Blackbird Web Browser, unleashed late last year, caused quite a stir in the black and tech communities. A browser specifically geared toward African Americans? Many questions arose and most are still unanswered. Many people (including myself) lashed out at the new browser, saying it was in no way innovative or all that useful. Still others defended 40A Inc’s new creation. About 5 months have passed since this debate, so I decided to check in with Blackbird and see what was going on.

Blackbird Reaches 100,000 Downloads

On March 2nd of 2009, Blackbird announced they had reached 100,000 downloads. This seems pretty impressive since the browser had really only existed for about 3 months.

“Our community is rapidly expanding, and therefore we will continue to develop relevant resources and bring people together in a social media, Web 2.0 setting.” -Ed Young, CEO and Co-Founder of Blackbird

Blackbird Grapevine

Since their initial release, Blackbird has been adding features and improving the browser. The visual layout is still pretty hideous, but it seems they are focusing on the back-end. One example of this behind-the-scenes work is the Blackbird Grapevine, which is theirDigg clone. Once you’ve signed up for a Blackbird account, you can start sharing things to Grapevine. You can also visit the actual Grapevine feature to see what other Blackbird users think is hot.

Blackbird Grapevine does not appear to be accessible outside of the browser, which I think is odd. If you have to be a Blackbird Browser user actually running the Blackbird Browser to access Grapevine, the selection of items and activity within the Grapevine system will remain severely limited. Blackbird would need to capture a huge share of the browser market, competing with the likes of Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Safari. It has already been argued that such a niche browser will not be able to make significant gains in that area.

Blackbird Local

Using the Yelp review engine, Blackbird Local allows businesses to list themselves as Blackbird Local Businesses. This makes them accessible right from within the browser. In implementing this feature, the question arose as to what businesses should be listed in Blackbird. It seems there are no limitations or  review process to get listed. You simply fill out a form.

Our sincere hope is that all businesses that desire a diverse and enlightened customer base will desire to be listed as Blackbird Local Businesses.  For Blackbird users it will be a pleasure to frequent these businesses that have taken the time to say, by signing up, “we want you as a customer.”

Final Thoughts

I applaud the Blackbird team for trying to make African American news and information easier to access. It seems they are making strides toward their goals, but I’m just not sure if they are headed in the right direction for our community. It’s not that I think the idea itself is separatist or racist, but the implementation still doesn’t make sense to me.

For instance, Blackbird Grapevine could very well have been implemented as a stand-alone site. Even if the argument is that putting everything into the browser makes it easier for the average person, why is the service blocked from view in browsers besides Blackbird?  While Blackbird Local is accessible from any browser (mainly because it acts as a service to anyone) I spoke with Blackbird CEO Ed Young about Grapevine and his decision to make it only accessible through Blackbird.  “Grapevine a key part of the Blackbird Community which is why it is not open to any and everyone on the web and only accessible from the browser.  Ultimately we will gauge our users requests and determine if the product will move to a web based versus browser based platform.”

Blackbird is working on other browser identities that will enhance the core product.

Do we gain anything by gathering all of this useful and relevant African American information only to lock it inside of a walled-garden, only accessible via a single niche browser?

Are you one of the 100,000 Blackbird users? What do you think about it’s new features? Have your opinions on Blackbird changed in these past 5 months? Tell us about it in the comments.