So I work at a face recognition start-up.... and the answer to your question is "Yes, but your mileage may vary". Face recognition algorithms in the wild vary i

So I work at a face recognition start-up.... and the answer to your question is "Yes, but your mileage may vary". Face recognition algorithms in the wild vary in quality by absurd margins. I know our stuff can do a pretty good job of it (because I've done it, internally). There are websites that are trying to do it. There is a need, however, for local applications that do it (so people aren't uploading all their photos to the web). The real problem is the actual business-case for creating such a product, especially from our perspective. We don't want to make a full-fledged photo application. So how about a plugin? Would people buy it? Should we give it away? Do photo-sharing applications provide a good way for us interface our metadata? etc. etc. I'm pretty sure if you gave our program a bunch of images, and we gave you an xml file with all the identities, you wouldn't be impressed. So we need a way of interacting with your photosharing application. And photo-sharing applications as "platforms" for plugins don't exactly inspire confidence.