The eagle has landed

Riya is now in Alpha at least for the 25 people who sent in their alpha invites almost 2 months ago. If all goes well we will open it up to the almost 2000 people who have asked to join the alpha (in stages). I've been reading all of the posts about Riya out there and thank you all so much for your enthusiasm.... but
Please please I beg of you... lower your expectations. Riya is not just alpha it is experimental technology. It will not find all of the photos you have of "john" from one example, but you give 1 it will give you 10 or 20 or 30 more of John.
It will probably hog your machine. It will probably not recognize everyone. It will take a while to recognize your photos. However it will learn. Riya will do better and better at recognizing over timeas more people use it and train the system
Never before has face recognition technology been available to consumers and been used in completely uncontrolled conditions. This software is buggy. I used it all weekend and it was not perfect.

That being said, we have tried our hardest to put our best foot forward. Just let us crawl before you ask us to walk. Please do give us your feedback. We will start working on it as fast as possible. I don't believe any alpha is on the mark but only that listening to users will help it become so.