Face.com initially rolled out its REST API, which allows developers to tap its awesome facial recognition technology for use in their own websites and applications, almost a year ago. Today, the startup is moving the API from ‘alpha’ to ‘beta’ mode – and it gets more exciting if you look at pricing.
While over 10,000 developers are said to be using the API since its May 2010 launch already, there were some restrictions to it, as they could only scan up to 200 photos per hour. As from today, developers can scan 5,000 photos per hour (or 120,000 per day) – still at no cost.
It’s a price that’s hard to beat, but that’s not the only thing Face.com says should spark developer interest.
Face.com says the technology has also been improved significantly, enabling third-party developers to pick up more faces in group photos and identifying the people in them more accurately than ever. You can also group similar faces in photos together now, which is great for bulk-tagging support in applications that make use of the API.
The API also boasts easy integration with Facebook (enabling you to recognize Facebook friends in photos across Facebook Connected apps) as well as Twitter (search and tagging for Twitter faces across a variety of photo services).
Face.com previously released a couple of popular Facebook apps, Photo Finder (which allows you to scan all the photos in your Facebook network) and Photo Tagger (which allows you to upload folders of pictures and bulk-tag photos).
The Israeli startup claims its technology has now ‘discovered’ over 18 billion faces across its APIs and Facebook apps, and counting.
Recently, rumors started swirling about the company about the fact that they reportedly rebuffed an acquisition offer from Facebook, and that its technology is actually used to power Facebook Photos’ facial recognition functionality.
Face.com has raised (only) $5.3 million to date.