Facebook has announced a new technology that’s not really so new that they are implementing to make tagging photos uploaded to the social media site much easier.
Facebook’s official blog says that people love tagging, but the problem is it can be tedious. So they are making it easier. Now it can be accomplished with just a few clicks, thanks to face recognition technology. This is the same technology that cameras already use.
It sounds like a great innovation, adapting existing technology for a different use.
From what I understand this is just the first of many new features coming from Facebook when it comes to photographs trying to lure more people to their site, using them as a photo sharing site instead of some of the other popular sites like Picasa and Flickr.
“People love tagging their friends and family in photos, but we’ve heard that it can be a tedious process. You now can add tags with just a couple of clicks directly from your home page and other sections of the site, using the same face detection technology that cameras have used for years. We’re running a limited test of this technology so you may not see it yet.”
“With this new feature, tagging is faster since you don’t need to select a face. It’s already selected for you, just like those rectangles you see around your friends’ faces when you take a photo with a modern digital camera. All that’s left for you to do is type a name and hit enter.”
Other popular photo-centered sites such as Picasa and Flickr will not be happy if Facebook takes some of their market share. I wonder if they will be able to do anything about it? Given the fact that Yahoo has other problems, probably not.
