“You have been tagged in a photo by your friend Xyz. Click the following link to view Xyz’s album http://……”
This is a kind of notification I used to receive lot of times a week! And with an excitement to see which photo I am tagged in – I used to follow such links to get equally disappointed. Everytime.
I am not a very great fan of tagging photos or getting my profile tagged in a photo which does not show me at all. Many times on Facebook, people keep tagging their friends in absolutely any image they upload. This could be a real fun for many genuine shares, but not all! I then finally unchecked option of “Allow tagging” on my social networking profiles!
This photo-tagging is now going on to a different levels by not limiting it to the famous networking sites. This may make life easier for people seeking information and may be difficult for those not willing to share information.
Face.com are the makers of a photo-tagging application on Facebook. They are now sharing their API with public. Which means that everyone can integrate their face detection and recognition technology with own websites, applications and services.
This open API is in alpha stage now and is available for free to use. See overview
How it can be used?
Imagine you were enjoying your weekend night with friends in a club. You saw a beautiful girl or a handsome boy there. You exchanged smiles. But somehow you were unable to get her/his name. Later, never managed to know even a word more. Sad, wasn’t that?
Now, if you have applications developed by this API installed on your mobile phone then all you need to do is take a photo and ask that application to search for all the information associated with that photo (person) including links to social networking profiles.. Then you can see their Name, Facebook, Twitter profile links and so on… !
But I have my doubts.
I think this is one of those technologies which is not going to be liked by every user. If you’re a developer, this could be a nice value addition to your websites or applications.
What do you think of photo-tagging? Would you like to be able to use or share information this way? Let us know.