Riya Facial Recognition Photo Search Site Set to Launch

Riya is a powerful new photo search site with an interesting broader vision: to make it easy to find every digital photo in the world. The site right now is in private alpha, but its set to roll out more broadly this week.

Using Riya, you can search by both tags you assign and/or the auto-tags Riya adds to photos. Riya add tags to photos with the help of what appears to be incredible face recognition technology. They remind me of LTU Technologies, a French company I worked with four years ago when I was with another agency. The Riya tour starts here. They also have a FAQ up on their wiki and much more on their blog. All photo searches are also output as RSS.

While I haven't personally tested this site. Their entry into the market is welcome. With Flickr now part of Yahoo and Picasa part of Google, we need nimble competitors to keep these guys playing their A game.

Technorati Tags: Flickr, Google, LTU Technologies, Photos, Picasa, Yahoo