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Solve Media's CAPTCHA replacement might have ads, but they're still an improvement
At times, fighting with multiple CAPTCHA codes is more painful than having to hear "Party in the U.S.A." playing on the radio for the umpteenth time in a single day. I understand the point of a CAPTCHA, but there have just been too many times where the squashed, skewed letters are far too mangled to comprehend.
Enter Solve Media, who think they've got a solution which is not only superior, but profitable. Instead of letter soup, Solve wants websites to display their ad-powered codes. "Browse Safer." Yep, I can read that -- and I'm not bothered at all by the advertisement.
That's a trade-off I'd be willing to make every time. What about you?
Full disclosure: AOL is an investor in Solve Media.
Enter Solve Media, who think they've got a solution which is not only superior, but profitable. Instead of letter soup, Solve wants websites to display their ad-powered codes. "Browse Safer." Yep, I can read that -- and I'm not bothered at all by the advertisement.
That's a trade-off I'd be willing to make every time. What about you?
Full disclosure: AOL is an investor in Solve Media.
Comments
15
Subscribe to commentsCTISNSep 20th 2010 11:52AM
There are other good variations on CAPTCHA that are similar to this same concept. For example, this one from Confident Technologies shows a grid of pictures and asks the user to click on specific pictures: http://demo.confidenttechnologies.com/captcha/.
Currently, there are no advertisements mixed in with the pictures, but it could be a possibility in the future, as a shared revenue model with the website owner. Personally, I'd rather simply click on a sponosored picture (e.g. "Click on the picture of the Mercedes Benz) than type in the slogan for a company. It just seems a little less intrusive.
VarunSep 20th 2010 12:27PM
Oh joy. And what about those of us running Adblock?
Lee MathewsSep 20th 2010 12:38PM
I presume you'd either whitelist or just shut adblock off temporarily so you could authenticate, no?
earlsSep 20th 2010 5:17PM
More like shut the site off - permanently.
Cile1977Sep 21st 2010 3:56AM
Adblock use is very unfair to site owners that are trying to earn some money - if you don't like ads on web page don't visit it! Adblock could be justified only if you're on limited bandwidth.
DaviSep 20th 2010 1:36PM
This may be a nifty way of forcing users to pay attention to the ads, but it's not a CAPTCHA replacement. CAPTCHAs work because each user gets a different test with a unique answer. Unless they make a gigantic number of variations on the ads, the bad guys can just detect which ad is being shown and hardcode the answers (and the linked article mentions this as well).
GenericSep 20th 2010 3:29PM
Exactly.
Teresa McGurkSep 20th 2010 2:03PM
I kinda like the captcha captions, especially when they spell random words. But then, I don't get out much. . . .
Joseph Johnson Jr.Sep 20th 2010 3:00PM
The recaptcha is a variant on captcha and it's advantage is that the user's time is not being wasted, instead they are helping to decode old books, or magazines, or newspapers, etc, where OCR software agents acting on the text have some error and need human intervention to help solve.
When you use a recaptcha, you're not just fighting spam, you're helping humanity by making more literature available in digital format. This adds up to quite a lot when you total up the number of people using that feature. With the ad based spam captcha, you are not helping any greater good other than some advertisers wallet.
These are called games with a purpose (gwaps).
Also why is it that the text is not being obscured in some way? Captchas are hard to read for a good reason, because OCR programs can't be used to read them. With recaptcha this is ensured, because the source (of one of the two words, where one is known) comes from a failed OCR.
Some food for thought.
joseph
@davey_ladSep 20th 2010 3:50PM
Lets not forget that Captcha's are for the benefit of website/service owners to prevent automated submissions... they are a complete hindrance to end users. I say fuck the lot of them... ads or no-ads
ChaimSep 20th 2010 7:55PM
And also to prevent your account from getting hacked into. I dont really get how this variations its easily computer readable and and they reference the autofill to the ads being displayed
CoweaterSep 25th 2010 4:59PM
They aren't a complete hindrance to users. They limit spam without someone spending time moderating every submission. Sure this frees up the site owner's time/money, but without it large sites like craigslist couldn't exist (or they would fail to scale or become a paid service)
@davey_ladSep 25th 2010 5:25PM
So you're argument is they reduce spam.. but help site owners such as those of craiglist ?
1. Spam isn't an issue for most users... how much lands in your inbox these days? It barely registers on my radar now (thanks gmail)
2. Isn't yor 2nd point what i said ? There are plenty of sites that exist without captchas, paid and free.
I get it.. it's a personal preference. I personally think they're useless, annoying and a hindrance. They bring no extra security or peace of mind to a system than a well implemented username, password, confirmation.
KevinSep 20th 2010 8:25PM
Doesn't that just ruin the whole point of a CAPTCHA? Anybody could write some half-decent OCR software to recognize the text.
Mitch WilsonOct 14th 2010 11:08AM
As a current user of Solve Media and a site owner I have three main words to decribe their prodict from a site owners perspective "NOT WORTH IT". Sure they turn something that you were making nothing off of into something you make something from but we are talking peanuts, as in $1-$3 a month, and many of the ads they serve are videos that your readers have to watch.
Also, on their reporting side, they constantly refer to CPM which is a term that means cost per thousand ads served but they aren't paying on CPM's just on solved puzzles. the fact they even refer to CPM lead me to believe they are being paid on CPM and not sharing the wealth. Basically they want us to do 100% of the work and for them to get 99% of the profit. This thing really sucks and I regret getting involved with these people.