A video piece on CNET caught my interest recently – a search engine that could recognise faces and text in images. When I decided to check it out I discovered that because the developers had chosen Ajax for their UI there were issues with cross browser/OS compatibility – Safari users need not apply right now.

Browser detection locked me out of a front page that on face value doesn’t contain anything tricky – it’s funny really.

If your application is using a lot of graphical trickery, doing nice UI stuff, and you’re trying to reach the maximum number of users – why use a technology that’ll lock people out?

The Riya Safari welcome message is below:

Associated links

Riya – Photo Search

Searching for the right face – CNET Video (Flash video)