Facebook has been working to make the tagging process easier when it comes to sharing photos with family and friends, and now, the social networking heavyweight will be using facial recognition software to do just that. 

Tagging photos can be a tedious process on Facebook if a user is sharing several photos from a large event. For instance, special occasions like birthday parties and weddings could have you sitting at the computer tagging the same people over and over, picture by picture, for long periods of time. 

Facebook has recognized the frustration involved in this process, and began working on a solution this past October. Now, the company is ready to present its end result, which is a facial recognition tool that is sure to make the monotonous task of photo tagging a more pleasant experience. 

The new facial recognition software is called "tag suggestions," which utilizes facial recognition software to match people in new photos to other photos they may be tagged in as well. 

For instance, let's say a friend uploads new photos that include you to their profile. Tag suggestions uses photo recognition software to distinguish your face from others based on previous tagged photos of you. Or, if someone in the batch of photos does not have any previous tags on Facebook, "group tagging," which allows a user to type one name and apply it to all of the photos that contain that person, can be used to manually tag individuals. But a user only has to type the name once, still making this feature much easier than previous methods of manual tagging.

"Now if you upload pictures from your cousins wedding, we'll group together pictures of the bride and suggest her name," said The Facebook Blog. "Instead of typing her name 64 times, all you'll need to do is click 'Save' to tag all of your cousin's pictures at once. By making tagging easier than before, you're more likely to know right away when friends post photos."

Even though someone can only tag you if you're friends with one another, users still have the option to turn off the tag suggestions feature. A friend would still be able to tag you manually, but switching the feature off will keep your name from being suggested when new photos are uploaded. To turn the feature off, simply go to "Privacy Settings," then "Customize Settings." There will be a "Suggest photos of me to friends" option that can be switched off. 

Facebook plans to launch this new feature over the next couple of weeks in the United States only. You'll be able to find the feature when uploading new photos that contain people in previously tagged photos, or when others upload them of you.