Which is Better for Face Search:
Tineye or SocialCatfish?
Top Reverse Image Search Engines Thoroughly Tested
Disclaimer: This is not an independent review. These tests were conducted in May 2024 as part of internal competitive analysis by an expert paid by FaceCheck.ID.
Below tests evaluate the effectiveness of Tineye and SocialCatfish for searching the Internet using a photo of someone's face. We used various criteria to match different practical use cases. You should test the search engines yourself to see which one works best for your needs. Each search test is awarded 0 to 5 score points based on how well the search performed. Points are summarized and charted at the end.;
Versus
16 Search by Face Tests
VS
Best Alternative to Tineye or SocialCatfish Reverse Image Search
Tineye vs SocialCatfish
Social Catfish delivers varied results in its reverse image search, occasionally providing accurate matches and leading users to useful websites like anti-scam pages. However, it often struggles with facial recognition, producing many false positives and irrelevant results, especially when searching for less well-known individuals. The service seems to be an auxiliary feature to its main focus on email and phone lookups, and suffers from a somewhat outdated user interface and questionable marketing tactics.
TinEye, on the other hand, maintains a vast database claiming over 67 billion images but frequently fails to match photos effectively, especially when searching for people. It does not support facial recognition, and its capability is limited to finding exact matches of images. The engine often encounters broken links, reflecting its struggle to keep its extensive database current. TinEye is fast and free, but its performance is hampered by its inability to process images from different angles or with minor alterations, making it less effective for comprehensive image searches.
Can Tineye and SocialCatfish Recognize a Side Facial Profile?
Side Facial Profile
This screenshot from a recent video interview shows the side profile of a famous person. The goal is to test the search engine to see if it can recognize the person and find front-facing photos of them.
This screenshot from a recent video interview shows the side profile of a famous person. The goal is to test the search engine to see if it can recognize the person and find front-facing photos of them.
TinEye did not find any matching photos.
Score: 0 Points
VS
Social Catfish found 708 pictures of men in suits with glasses, but only one was a positive match for the celebrity. This shows its poor performance in recognizing faces from a side view.
Score: +2 Points
Can Tineye and SocialCatfish Find Romance Scammers?
Romance Scam Photo
This picture of a handsome unsuspecting doctor has been stolen by scammers and published on dating apps and used in many online romance scams. The goal of this test is to see if the search engine can help the user uncover that this pic is associated with a scam operation. The doctor is innocent!
This picture of a handsome unsuspecting doctor has been stolen by scammers and published on dating apps and used in many online romance scams. The goal of this test is to see if the search engine can help the user uncover that this pic is associated with a scam operation. The doctor is innocent!
TinEye did not find any matching photos. There are plenty of images of this doctor published online on scammy dating websites, social profiles, and forums. This makes us suspicious about TinEye's claim of 67+ billion images in their database.
Score: 0 Points
VS
Social Catfish returned a few results of this stolen photo with a lead to an anti-scam website.
Score: +5 Points
Can Tineye and SocialCatfish Work with Poor Quality Photos?
Bad Photo of a Killer
A low-quality photo of a serial rapist, murderer, and ex-colonel in the Royal Canadian Air Force. The goal is to test the search engine's ability with a bad quality image with .jpeg artifacts where the person isn't facing the camera directly.
A low-quality photo of a serial rapist, murderer, and ex-colonel in the Royal Canadian Air Force. The goal is to test the search engine's ability with a bad quality image with .jpeg artifacts where the person isn't facing the camera directly.
TinEye found a few exact matches of the photo. It is not able to find the subject in different photos with his face from different angles, which means TinEye does not use facial recognition.
Score: +3 Points
VS
Social Catfish returned numerous match results of this killer even from a couple of different angles.
Score: +5 Points
Can Tineye and SocialCatfish Find Child Abusers?
Child Molester on the Run
This is a photo of someone on the offender list for molesting kids. His status is 'Absconded,' meaning he ran away from his registered address without telling the authorities. The goal is to see if the search engine is able to find high-risk offenders.
This is a photo of someone on the offender list for molesting kids. His status is 'Absconded,' meaning he ran away from his registered address without telling the authorities. The goal is to see if the search engine is able to find high-risk offenders.
TinEye found a few exact match results. However, most of the links are old and broken.
Score: +2 Points
VS
Social Catfish provided many exact match results of this predator.
Score: +5 Points
Can Tineye and SocialCatfish Find Recent News?
Recently Arrested
A photo of a serious sexual offender involving a child, who fled from the police and was hunted down and arrested, was all over the Australian news two weeks ago. The goal is to check if the search engine can find recently published images in its database.
A photo of a serious sexual offender involving a child, who fled from the police and was hunted down and arrested, was all over the Australian news two weeks ago. The goal is to check if the search engine can find recently published images in its database.
TinEye found recent results, which means TinEye is indexing new content. However, only 3 links for a website that claims to index 67+ billion images is rather underwhelming.
Score: +3 Points
VS
Social Catfish returned several exact match results of this man.
Score: +5 Points
Can Tineye and SocialCatfish Recognize a Person wearing a Mask?
Masked Celebrity Actress
This is a B-list celebrity wearing a face mask, only showing her eyes and forehead. The test is to see if the search engine can recognize faces even when they're covered by a mask. There is thousands of images of this celebrity all over the Internet, so finding a few matches should not be a problem.
This is a B-list celebrity wearing a face mask, only showing her eyes and forehead. The test is to see if the search engine can recognize faces even when they're covered by a mask. There is thousands of images of this celebrity all over the Internet, so finding a few matches should not be a problem.
TinEye did not find any matching photos. Since this celebrity has thousands of photos all over the Internet, it is proof TinEye is not using facial recognition and is not well-suited for this task.
Score: 0 Points
VS
Social Catfish found a few matches of the actress without a mask. It found her pics just by matching her eyes and forehead. But not many matches and also false positive on the very top, so we're giving only 4 points.
Score: +4 Points
Can Tineye and SocialCatfish Find Obscure Foreign Celebrities?
Unknown Singer from Laos
A picture of a not-so-famous singer from the country of Laos. Hardly anyone outside of Laos knows her. The goal of this test is to see if the search engine can find info on obscure public figures from other countries.
A picture of a not-so-famous singer from the country of Laos. Hardly anyone outside of Laos knows her. The goal of this test is to see if the search engine can find info on obscure public figures from other countries.
TinEye did not find any matching photos for this beauty from Laos. This makes us suspicious about their 67+ billion images indexed claim.
Score: 0 Points
VS
Social Catfish displayed plenty of results of brunette women; however, none of the women matched the obscure singer.
Score: 0 Points
Can Tineye and SocialCatfish Find an OnlyFans Model?
Random OnlyFans Model
A photo of a random woman on OnlyFans who lives in Vietnam. The goal is to see if the search engine can find OnlyFans profiles.
A photo of a random woman on OnlyFans who lives in Vietnam. The goal is to see if the search engine can find OnlyFans profiles.
TinEye did not find any matching photos.
Score: 0 Points
VS
Social Catfish produced results of open-mouth women in glasses and marked them as exact matches. But in fact, none of them matched the searched person.
Score: 0 Points
Can Tineye and SocialCatfish Find an Adult Actress by Low-Res Pic?
Low-Res Pic of Adult Actress
A low-resolution picture of an obscure Japanese adult film actress. The goal is to see if the search engine can find Asian adult film stars using low-resolution photos.
A low-resolution picture of an obscure Japanese adult film actress. The goal is to see if the search engine can find Asian adult film stars using low-resolution photos.
TinEye did not find any matching photos.
Score: 0 Points
VS
Social Catfish yielded numerous results of Japanese women; however, none of the women matched the searched person.
Score: 0 Points
Can Tineye and SocialCatfish Find an Old Person by Their Young Pic?
Find Old Person by Young Pic
This photo is from 1976, showing a woman who was 27 years old at the time. The goal is to see if the search engine can find a more recent photo of the same person.
This photo is from 1976, showing a woman who was 27 years old at the time. The goal is to see if the search engine can find a more recent photo of the same person.
TinEye found 2 exact match photos but did not find any similar matching images.
Score: +2 Points
VS
Social Catfish returned the original picture match; however, it was not able to find the person in her older years.
Score: +1 Points
Can Tineye and SocialCatfish Find a Profile of a War Criminal?
War Criminal Soldier
A picture of a Russian soldier who filmed himself committing terrible war crimes. The goal is to see if the search engine can find this soldier's social media profiles.
A picture of a Russian soldier who filmed himself committing terrible war crimes. The goal is to see if the search engine can find this soldier's social media profiles.
TinEye found many exact matching photos but not the person in different photos.
Score: +4 Points
VS
Social Catfish delivered numerous results of the soldier; however, the top results did not match.
Score: +4 Points
Can Tineye and SocialCatfish Find Escort Ads?
Brazilian Escort Ad
A photo from a Brazilian escort ad. We blurred it on this page for privacy. The goal is to see if the search engine can find images on escort ads websites.
A photo from a Brazilian escort ad. We blurred it on this page for privacy. The goal is to see if the search engine can find images on escort ads websites.
TinEye did not find any matching photos.
Score: 0 Points
VS
Social Catfish found many results of red-haired women; however, none of the women matched the searched person.
Score: 0 Points
Can Tineye and SocialCatfish Handle Facial Expressions?
Exaggerated Expression
The camera captured a soccer player with a funny facial expression in this photo. The goal is to see if the search engine is robust enough to find images of the same person with a normal facial expression.
The camera captured a soccer player with a funny facial expression in this photo. The goal is to see if the search engine is robust enough to find images of the same person with a normal facial expression.
TinEye found many exact matching photos but not the person in different photos.
Score: +4 Points
VS
Social Catfish returned plenty of results of the soccer player even with a couple of different facial expressions.
Score: +5 Points
Can Tineye and SocialCatfish Find AI Generated Images?
AI Generated Girl
This image was generated by an artificial intelligence app. The goal is to test if the search engine can find similar AI images.
This image was generated by an artificial intelligence app. The goal is to test if the search engine can find similar AI images.
TinEye did not find any matching photos.
Score: 0 Points
VS
Social Catfish discovered some AI-generated pics of women; however, none of them was really too similar to the source person.
Score: +1 Points
Can Tineye and SocialCatfish Work with Blurred Photos?
Blurred Photo
Even though this photo is heavily blurred, almost anyone would recognize the iconic president in the photo. A good reverse image search engine should be able to recognize this person too.
Even though this photo is heavily blurred, almost anyone would recognize the iconic president in the photo. A good reverse image search engine should be able to recognize this person too.
TinEye failed to process the blurred image, saying "Your image is too simple to find matches."
Score: 0 Points
VS
Social Catfish found lots of photos of the president, having no problem with the blurred pic.
Score: +5 Points
Can Tineye and SocialCatfish Find Social Media Profiles?
Social Media Model
This person is a social media fitness model from Iraq. The test is: can the reverse image search engine find social media profiles of a person from an Islamic country?
This person is a social media fitness model from Iraq. The test is: can the reverse image search engine find social media profiles of a person from an Islamic country?
TinEye did not find any matching photos.
Score: 0 Points
VS
Social Catfish provided a plethora of brunettes; however, none of them matched the Iraqi fitness model.
Score: 0 Points
Tineye and SocialCatfish - Bottom Line Comparison
Pros
Bottom Line
TinEye was one of the first reverse image search engines and claims to have an enormous database of over 67 billion images. However, due to its age, it suffers from a high level of link rot, with many broken links pointing to websites that no longer exist. Additionally, TinEye can only perform exact matches and does not utilize facial recognition. Consequently, our tests indicate it is very weak when searching for images of people.
67+ billion images
Fast Image Search
Free Search
Cons
No Facial Recognition
Old broken URL links
Exact Image Match Only
Total Score: 18 Points
VS
Pros
Bottom Line
Social Catfish's reverse image search is an add-on to their primary email and phone lookup services. Since image search is not their main focus, it feels like an afterthought. The technology appears outdated, resulting in inconsistent facial recognition performance. While it delivers good results occasionally, it often falls short. However, their YouTube channel excels in raising awareness about romance scams.
Entertaining YouTube Videos
Strong Brand Name
Effective in Some Cases
Cons
Poor Face Recognition
Questionable Marketing Tactics
Slow App and Aged User Interface
Total Score: 42 Points
The Ultimate Facial Recognition Search Engine Showdown
| Test | FaceCheck | PimEyes | SocialCatfish | Yandex | Tineye | Bing | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Side Facial Profile | 5 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Romance Scam Photo | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Bad Photo of a Killer | 5 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Child Molester on the Run | 5 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 0 |
| Recently Arrested | 5 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 0 |
| Masked Celebrity Actress | 5 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unknown Singer from Laos | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Random OnlyFans Model | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Low-Res Pic of Adult Actress | 4 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Find Old Person by Young Pic | 5 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| War Criminal Soldier | 5 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 3 |
| Brazilian Escort Ad | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Exaggerated Expression | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 5 |
| AI Generated Girl | 5 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Blurred Photo | 5 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Social Media Model | 5 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total Points | |||||||
| FaceCheck | PimEyes | SocialCatfish | Yandex | Tineye | Bing |
Explore the Best Alternative to Tineye or SocialCatfish for Image Searching
All Reverse Image Search Engines Comparisons
- PimEyes.com vs FaceCheck.ID
- PimEyes.com vs Google.com
- PimEyes.com vs Tineye.com
- PimEyes.com vs Bing.com
- PimEyes.com vs SocialCatfish.com
- PimEyes.com vs Yandex.com
- FaceCheck.ID vs Google.com
- FaceCheck.ID vs Tineye.com
- FaceCheck.ID vs Bing.com
- FaceCheck.ID vs SocialCatfish.com
- FaceCheck.ID vs Yandex.com
- Google.com vs Tineye.com
- Google.com vs Bing.com
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- Tineye.com vs SocialCatfish.com
- Tineye.com vs Yandex.com
- Bing.com vs SocialCatfish.com
- Bing.com vs Yandex.com
- SocialCatfish.com vs Yandex.com
Single Test Results
On the subject in other languages
Który jest lepszy do wyszukiwania twarzy: Tineye czy SocialCatfish?
Qual é melhor para busca de rostos: Tineye ou SocialCatfish?
ما هو الأفضل للبحث بالوجه: Tineye أو SocialCatfish؟
Что лучше для поиска по лицам: Tineye или SocialCatfish?
Qual è migliore per la ricerca di volti: Tineye o SocialCatfish?
哪一个更适合人脸搜索：Tineye 还是 SocialCatfish？
Který je lepší pro vyhledávání obličejů: Tineye nebo SocialCatfish?
चेहरे की खोज के लिए कौन बेहतर है: Tineye या SocialCatfish?
顔検索に最適なのはどちら？：Tineye か SocialCatfish?
Welcher ist besser für die Gesichtssuche: Tineye oder SocialCatfish?
¿Cuál es mejor para la búsqueda facial: Tineye o SocialCatfish?
Quel est le meilleur pour la recherche faciale : Tineye ou SocialCatfish ?
Yüz Araması için Hangisi Daha İyi: Tineye veya SocialCatfish?
얼굴 검색에 더 좋은 것은 무엇입니까: Tineye 또는 SocialCatfish?
