On April 29, during its Build conference, Microsoft launched a new demo app – How-old.net – which uses facial recognition and other data to guess your age and gender. It sounded fun, sure, but what no one expected was for the website to go viral overnight (hashtag #HowOldRobot).
The app offers a really simple UI, and allows users to search Bing for images with faces, or upload an image of their own. Once your picture is up, you’ll get your results: the age will appear as a number, the gender as an icon. Don’t let the simple UI fool you, though – the web app is anything but! It contains image search, gender detection, face detection, and image understanding, but hides all of this cleverly and shows you only the basics – minimal and clean.
Why Did the App Go Viral?
Aside from being easy to use, it’s also fun, focused on only one thing (guessing your age and gender), and, well, it appeals to your narcissistic side.
How-old.net is cross-platform, meaning that it runs well on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android. All you need is the URL, which you won’t have trouble remembering, because it’s short and straightforward. Another reason it has become so popular is that anyone can use it, wherever they are in the world – there are no language barriers.
Why not try the app yourself? http://how-old.net/ Tell us how you liked it afterwards!
