Excire Search for Lightroom is a plugin which uses powerful image recognition technology on your own computer to analyze and keep track of your images. If you want to find some images of a mountain, just type in “Mountain” and the system will pull up all of the images in your library that match. No tagging, no keywording, nothing: You just install the plugin, let it analyze your library (it takes about 1 hour per 10,000 images), and thereafter searches will be near instantaneous.
Unlike similar services in the past which have required you to upload your entire library to a cloud service of sorts, Excire Search is entirely self-contained on your machine, no images to upload anywhere else. The search even has multiple ways for you to hunt for the images you want to find. In CT mode you simply type in the sort of object you are looking for, like a bird, or tree, or blue bike, etc. Then the system will pull up any images from your library that match.
The second option, EX mode, lets you select an image similar to the one or ones you are trying to find. So an image of your dog, or your great aunt. You select the image and the system will pull up all the images in your library that match that image.
The one caveat to this plugin is that you need to have at least 10,000 images in your library before it becomes effective. If you take pictures regularly, though, you will know that 10,000 is not all that many in the grand scheme of things.
Excire Search isn’t even all that expensive, and you can try before you buy with a 15-day free trial. If you do give it a shot and decide to purchase, the full version will run you about $66. You can get all of the information over on the Excire Search website if you are interested.
