[photo via Google Blog]
Google has acquired ReCaptcha, one of those companies behind the distorted text boxes at the bottom of many Web site sign-in pages.[via Frenzy Blogging]
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Google plans to use ReCaptcha's technology both as a security measure within certain Google sites and to make its massive book-scanning project a little smarter, the company said in a blog post. ReCaptcha is an offshoot of Carnegie Mellon University's School of Computer Science, and puts a twist on the traditional captcha: a string of letters in squiggly text meant to confuse spam bots and other nonhuman Web pests.
The idea behind a captcha is to confuse a computer, but computers are also confused by some words written in fonts used long ago. ReCaptcha offers two words, one of which is a captcha it already knows, and one of which is a word it doesn't know. The thinking is that if you get the first word right, you're likely a human and you're also probably going to get the second one right.
Google really and truly needs to focus on working on the products and services they already have before spending money frivolously in trying to buy up everything. Another microsoft type corporation if the truth is to be told.
ReplyDeleteI am NOT a fan of reCAPTCHA and I encourage everyone to go read mashable's article titled "Facebook Captcha: What You DON’T Need to Type" and start purposely screwing up the Captchas. Google wanting to digitize and own all books of the world is just NOT a good thing.
And also Captcha's do NOT stop spammers in any way, shape or form, as spammers use program scripts to get around them and spam thousands of sites.