Which is Better for Face Search:
Tineye or Yandex?
Best Reverse Image Search Engines: Comprehensive Test Results
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 Yandex 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
Find a Better Reverse Image Search Tool Than Tineye or Yandex
Tineye vs Yandex
TinEye, a pioneer in reverse image search engines, boasts a large database of over 67 billion images. However, it struggles with outdated links and lacks facial recognition capabilities, limiting its effectiveness in finding people in various images. It specializes in exact image matches and often fails to find related images or individuals from different angles.
On the other hand, Yandex provides more flexible search capabilities, particularly in Russian and Eastern European contexts. It does not restrict searches based on facial recognition, allowing for a broader range of image queries. While Yandex also lacks true facial recognition, it effectively indexes new and diverse images, although its focus remains somewhat regionally skewed.
Both engines offer rapid and free searches, but their effectiveness varies greatly depending on the type of images and geographical focus of the search. TinEye excels in exact matches but falls short in versatility, while Yandex offers more comprehensive results in its specialized regions.
Can Tineye and Yandex 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
Yandex displayed many men in suits on TV matching the overall setting, but none of them matched the celebrity in the original picture, confirming the lack of facial recognition.
Score: 0 Points
Can Tineye and Yandex 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
Yandex found several images of the doctor in different settings.
Score: +5 Points
Can Tineye and Yandex 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
Yandex found a few exact matches, but due to the extensive presence of the killer's images on the internet, we consider these results poor.
Score: +2 Points
Can Tineye and Yandex 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
Yandex found one image of the predator on a Russian language website. It appears Yandex did not index any of his images from Western websites.
Score: +2 Points
Can Tineye and Yandex 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
Yandex did not find any image of this Australian man. Most of the image results are from Russian language websites.
Score: 0 Points
Can Tineye and Yandex 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
Yandex found many women in black masks, but none of them are the actress. This proves that Yandex does not use facial recognition.
Score: 0 Points
Can Tineye and Yandex 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
Yandex found similar-looking Asian women with smooth skin and bright red lips, but none of them are the singer from Laos we are searching for.
Score: 0 Points
Can Tineye and Yandex 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
Yandex found many women in glasses with open mouths, but none of them are the OnlyFans model we are looking for.
Score: 0 Points
Can Tineye and Yandex 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
Yandex found one exact match of this Asian adult star, leading to two websites.
Score: +3 Points
Can Tineye and Yandex 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
Yandex found an exact match of this woman but failed to find any pictures from her older years.
Score: +1 Points
Can Tineye and Yandex 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
Yandex found one exact match of this war criminal, leading to several websites.
Score: +4 Points
Can Tineye and Yandex 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
Yandex found many red-haired women, but none of them are the person we are looking for.
Score: 0 Points
Can Tineye and Yandex 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
Yandex found the soccer player with many different facial expressions and delivered useful results.
Score: +5 Points
Can Tineye and Yandex 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
Yandex found similar-looking photos, but none of them seem to be AI-generated or match the original picture.
Score: +1 Points
Can Tineye and Yandex 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
Yandex had no problem with this blurred photo and found many images of the president.
Score: +5 Points
Can Tineye and Yandex 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
Yandex found many brunettes with similar face shapes, but none of them are the Iraqi fitness model.
Score: 0 Points
Tineye and Yandex - 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
Yandex primarily indexes images from Russian and Eastern European websites. Since it doesn't use facial recognition algorithms and has limited indexing of Western and Asian websites, it didn't perform well in our tests. However, unlike Google and Bing, Yandex doesn't block face searches, which is a plus. If you're looking for images specific to Russian-speaking countries or Eastern Europe, Yandex could be a useful tool.
Allows Face Search
Good User Interface
Fast Search
Cons
No Face Recognition
Focused on Russian Websites
Annoying Captcha
Total Score: 28 Points
Best Facial Recognition Search Engines: Which One Wins?
| 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 |
The Best Alternative to Tineye or Yandex for Reverse Image Searches
Comparing All Available Reverse Image Search Engines
- 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
- Google.com vs SocialCatfish.com
- Google.com vs Yandex.com
- Tineye.com vs Bing.com
- 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 Yandex?
Qual é melhor para busca de rostos: Tineye ou Yandex?
ما هو الأفضل للبحث بالوجه: Tineye أو Yandex؟
Что лучше для поиска по лицам: Tineye или Yandex?
Qual è migliore per la ricerca di volti: Tineye o Yandex?
哪一个更适合人脸搜索：Tineye 还是 Yandex？
Který je lepší pro vyhledávání obličejů: Tineye nebo Yandex?
चेहरे की खोज के लिए कौन बेहतर है: Tineye या Yandex?
顔検索に最適なのはどちら？：Tineye か Yandex?
Welcher ist besser für die Gesichtssuche: Tineye oder Yandex?
¿Cuál es mejor para la búsqueda facial: Tineye o Yandex?
Quel est le meilleur pour la recherche faciale : Tineye ou Yandex ?
Yüz Araması için Hangisi Daha İyi: Tineye veya Yandex?
얼굴 검색에 더 좋은 것은 무엇입니까: Tineye 또는 Yandex?
