Riya: Cool but … Disappointing
Recently, I’ve been hearing rumblings about a Flickr-like site named Riya that is the subject of a much-rumored Google buyout. After an initial visit to the site and a glance at their “Learn More” page, they already had me interested. The service purports to allow searching for both text and faces within photographs, be they your own images, others’ images, and, according to text on the site, the web at large. This alone offers enormous possibilities, especially if an open API to the technology is provided (a distinct probability with Google as a potential parent), not to mention that the site has other neat-looking features as well.
So, obviously the first thing I want to do is try out this magic facial recognition searching. However, I have no images uploaded, so what name should I search for? Ironically, I choose “Bill Gates” as my search term and hit the go button. I am greeted with the following screen:
Hmmm. How awkward. Not only am I greeted with a non-optimal browsing experience in the (in my opinion) Web2.0 browser of choice, but they have apparently broken something so badly in Firefox that I am not even allowed to see the results. This gets bad marks for usability, even for a public alpha. My enthusiasm is significantly curbed.
However, not to be daunted, I use my handy IE Tab Firefox extension to fire up the same page in IE within a tab and try my query again. “Bill Gates” … go. After a delay, I am greeted with a screen of ghosted (and fake) results covered with the (hard to read) text: “During alpha please login to conduct public search in Riya”. Hmmm. Mild enthusiasm has now been completely displaced by design criticisms. Why couldn’t they have told me about all of this on the front page? Why have I been wasting my time? Oh well, maybe the beta will be less … disappointing.
Comments (6 So Far)
1
Tara 'Miss Rogue' Hunt says:
Yes…I totally know we suck for:
1. not supporting the best browser experiences (I’m actually a Mac user, so believe me, I’m crying in the office)
2. closing the public search
However, we are rectifying both within the next week for the wider alpha launch. If you want to be on the list, just drop me a line. I’m currently collecting all of the firefox et al comments and using them as fuel to get that going.
Broken sucks.
Oh…I’m the chief blogger/online marketing manager for Riya (should disclose that right away).
T.
2
Vikram Aggarwal says:
A similar company (MyHeritage.com), where I work, is also in alpha but it supports Firefox from day one, and its alpha is not closed to invites so you can try face recognition on their site for yourself. Although the current alpha is more a fun demo than anything strongly useful, the upcoming beta will change that. Take a look, I hope you won’t be… disappointed
3
Oskar Syahbana says:
I truly agrees with you. I failed to notice this at first but when more and more facts unveil, it’s a questionable decision to support only an obsolete browser such as IE 6.
4
Sean says:
Tara,
Thanks for your reply! I definitely understand the constraints of an early alpha release. I didn’t mean to be too mean. It looks like Riya/Ojos has some really cool technology. I hope the wider alpha and beta releases will be able to bring this exciting technology to a wider audience. Really, I don’t have much to criticise about your service other than the fact that it is not (yet) easy for me to access.
I was just reading an interview that you did the other day and found it very insightful. I hope to write a post about it soon. I had no idea that you were involved in Riya! What a small world.
5
Brian Shih says:
Sniff sniff… I tried to sign up for the alpha several weeks ago too. But alas no luck. You’re probably a much better alpha tester than I though… seeing as I don’t really care that much about digital photography.
6
Munjal Shah says:
Sean, we have not yet released the wider 1000 person alpha and hence the public search is empty… btw - what are you specific thoughts in the UI - Munjal CEO Riya
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