Comments on: Good News For Splogs! Word Verification (aka CAPTCHA’s) May Become Useless In The Future http://www.blogherald.com/2007/10/22/good-news-for-splogs-word-verification-aka-captchas-may-become-useless-in-the-future/ The leading source of news covering social media and the blogosphere. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 09:18:59 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Blogger Gives Then Takes Away Pages (Blogger In Draft) | BloggingPro http://www.blogherald.com/2007/10/22/good-news-for-splogs-word-verification-aka-captchas-may-become-useless-in-the-future/comment-page-1/#comment-1114279 Blogger Gives Then Takes Away Pages (Blogger In Draft) | BloggingPro Thu, 21 Jan 2010 19:11:15 +0000 http://www.blogherald.com/2007/10/22/good-news-for-splogs-word-verification-aka-captchas-may-become-useless-in-the-future/#comment-1114279 [...] Although Blogger is currently the world’s most popular blogging platform (WordPress comes in at a distant second) the service still has quite a ways to go in order to match against its smaller rivals (especially in the comment spam arena as CAPTCHA’s are dead). [...] [...] Although Blogger is currently the world’s most popular blogging platform (WordPress comes in at a distant second) the service still has quite a ways to go in order to match against its smaller rivals (especially in the comment spam arena as CAPTCHA’s are dead). [...]

]]> By: iPhone Plus Blogger Plus “Troll Hate” Equals Blogium? | The Blog Herald http://www.blogherald.com/2007/10/22/good-news-for-splogs-word-verification-aka-captchas-may-become-useless-in-the-future/comment-page-1/#comment-1105867 iPhone Plus Blogger Plus “Troll Hate” Equals Blogium? | The Blog Herald Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:58:22 +0000 http://www.blogherald.com/2007/10/22/good-news-for-splogs-word-verification-aka-captchas-may-become-useless-in-the-future/#comment-1105867 [...] CAPTCHA’s for your Blogger blog, spammers are getting around these silly word puzzles via complex software or cheap human labor, making comment monitoring a [...] [...] CAPTCHA’s for your Blogger blog, spammers are getting around these silly word puzzles via complex software or cheap human labor, making comment monitoring a [...]

]]> By: Anti Virus http://www.blogherald.com/2007/10/22/good-news-for-splogs-word-verification-aka-captchas-may-become-useless-in-the-future/comment-page-1/#comment-1104815 Anti Virus Fri, 04 Sep 2009 07:01:55 +0000 http://www.blogherald.com/2007/10/22/good-news-for-splogs-word-verification-aka-captchas-may-become-useless-in-the-future/#comment-1104815 In a CAPTCHA test (an acronym for "Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart," also sometimes spelled in lowercase), an image of letters is dynamically generated. The letters, because they're part of an image and not text (e.g. text that you could cut and paste), are difficult for a spambot or other computer program to read. Yet, a person has little trouble reading the letters in a captcha image. In a CAPTCHA test (an acronym for “Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart,” also sometimes spelled in lowercase), an image of letters is dynamically generated. The letters, because they’re part of an image and not text (e.g. text that you could cut and paste), are difficult for a spambot or other computer program to read. Yet, a person has little trouble reading the letters in a captcha image.

]]> By: Anti spam | AndD bLOGGER http://www.blogherald.com/2007/10/22/good-news-for-splogs-word-verification-aka-captchas-may-become-useless-in-the-future/comment-page-1/#comment-1022681 Anti spam | AndD bLOGGER Wed, 27 May 2009 15:53:05 +0000 http://www.blogherald.com/2007/10/22/good-news-for-splogs-word-verification-aka-captchas-may-become-useless-in-the-future/#comment-1022681 [...] Google has done an excellent job in fighting this using word verification, although unfortunately those days may be quickly coming to an end. [...] [...] Google has done an excellent job in fighting this using word verification, although unfortunately those days may be quickly coming to an end. [...]

]]> By: *Chronicles of Trisna* » Blog Archive » Upgrade your Comment System http://www.blogherald.com/2007/10/22/good-news-for-splogs-word-verification-aka-captchas-may-become-useless-in-the-future/comment-page-1/#comment-556250 *Chronicles of Trisna* » Blog Archive » Upgrade your Comment System Tue, 05 Aug 2008 02:04:53 +0000 http://www.blogherald.com/2007/10/22/good-news-for-splogs-word-verification-aka-captchas-may-become-useless-in-the-future/#comment-556250 [...] thus allowing everyone to comment without the need for users to bypass silly word tests (which may become extinct anyways). Data export options - if you are using the service in Wordpress or Blogger (more [...] [...] thus allowing everyone to comment without the need for users to bypass silly word tests (which may become extinct anyways). Data export options – if you are using the service in WordPress or Blogger (more [...]

]]> By: Four Ways to Provide Convenience to Your Readers | The Reader Appreciation Project http://www.blogherald.com/2007/10/22/good-news-for-splogs-word-verification-aka-captchas-may-become-useless-in-the-future/comment-page-1/#comment-426152 Four Ways to Provide Convenience to Your Readers | The Reader Appreciation Project Fri, 25 Apr 2008 14:57:20 +0000 http://www.blogherald.com/2007/10/22/good-news-for-splogs-word-verification-aka-captchas-may-become-useless-in-the-future/#comment-426152 [...] a blogger’s perspective, CAPTCHAs can seem necessary. Many are overwhelmed with spam, and CAPTCHAs are a quick way to stop spam in its [...] [...] a blogger’s perspective, CAPTCHAs can seem necessary. Many are overwhelmed with spam, and CAPTCHAs are a quick way to stop spam in its [...]

]]> By: Blog comment spam on the increase | Cosmos http://www.blogherald.com/2007/10/22/good-news-for-splogs-word-verification-aka-captchas-may-become-useless-in-the-future/comment-page-1/#comment-351112 Blog comment spam on the increase | Cosmos Sat, 16 Feb 2008 13:35:26 +0000 http://www.blogherald.com/2007/10/22/good-news-for-splogs-word-verification-aka-captchas-may-become-useless-in-the-future/#comment-351112 [...] articles recently mentioning that captcha’s can be read/broken by automated software and may become useless. Well, I wonder if this is now happening, because over the last few days I’ve had a sudden [...] [...] articles recently mentioning that captcha’s can be read/broken by automated software and may become useless. Well, I wonder if this is now happening, because over the last few days I’ve had a sudden [...]

]]> By: Lorelle VanFossen http://www.blogherald.com/2007/10/22/good-news-for-splogs-word-verification-aka-captchas-may-become-useless-in-the-future/comment-page-1/#comment-231045 Lorelle VanFossen Sat, 03 Nov 2007 13:12:30 +0000 http://www.blogherald.com/2007/10/22/good-news-for-splogs-word-verification-aka-captchas-may-become-useless-in-the-future/#comment-231045 The technology to get past CAPTCHAs has been around for a long time. The fact that one company got caught is great. That leaves a lot of others hiding under the radar getting paid by spammers to easily slip through CAPTCHAs and torture test questions (what's 7+2), not to mention the growing trend in human spammers. So one company is out. I'd love to see the rest gone. CAPTCHAs and torture tests do not work and haven't worked, so if you are using them on your blog, you are getting in the way of your reader's ability to comment, as many won't comment because of them. Akismet and other blog comment spam tools like Spam Karma and Bad Behavior are doing great at stopping comment spam, or at least slowing it down to a dull roar, and the more who use them, the better their ability to stop spam. The only time I've found justified for using CAPTCHAs would be in this example case of the tickets, but combined with a backup like Akismet. Some are doing that with their contact forms and business inquiries. There is a future for developing spam fighting tools that work behind the scenes, and I'm looking forward to those who want to be smarter than the bad guys getting the attention and respect they deserve. Thanks for bringing this to our attention! The technology to get past CAPTCHAs has been around for a long time. The fact that one company got caught is great. That leaves a lot of others hiding under the radar getting paid by spammers to easily slip through CAPTCHAs and torture test questions (what’s 7+2), not to mention the growing trend in human spammers.

So one company is out. I’d love to see the rest gone.

CAPTCHAs and torture tests do not work and haven’t worked, so if you are using them on your blog, you are getting in the way of your reader’s ability to comment, as many won’t comment because of them.

Akismet and other blog comment spam tools like Spam Karma and Bad Behavior are doing great at stopping comment spam, or at least slowing it down to a dull roar, and the more who use them, the better their ability to stop spam.

The only time I’ve found justified for using CAPTCHAs would be in this example case of the tickets, but combined with a backup like Akismet. Some are doing that with their contact forms and business inquiries.

There is a future for developing spam fighting tools that work behind the scenes, and I’m looking forward to those who want to be smarter than the bad guys getting the attention and respect they deserve.

Thanks for bringing this to our attention!

]]> By: Chris Young http://www.blogherald.com/2007/10/22/good-news-for-splogs-word-verification-aka-captchas-may-become-useless-in-the-future/comment-page-1/#comment-228906 Chris Young Thu, 01 Nov 2007 06:46:45 +0000 http://www.blogherald.com/2007/10/22/good-news-for-splogs-word-verification-aka-captchas-may-become-useless-in-the-future/#comment-228906 Wow... i didn't know there was technology to get by the CAPTCHA spam protection... Anyone know what kind of technology is being used to get around it? Wow… i didn’t know there was technology to get by the CAPTCHA spam protection…

Anyone know what kind of technology is being used to get around it?

]]> By: Gatholoco http://www.blogherald.com/2007/10/22/good-news-for-splogs-word-verification-aka-captchas-may-become-useless-in-the-future/comment-page-1/#comment-228579 Gatholoco Wed, 31 Oct 2007 07:14:54 +0000 http://www.blogherald.com/2007/10/22/good-news-for-splogs-word-verification-aka-captchas-may-become-useless-in-the-future/#comment-228579 Hey, where's Akismet today? Hey, where’s Akismet today?

]]> By: Anne Helmond http://www.blogherald.com/2007/10/22/good-news-for-splogs-word-verification-aka-captchas-may-become-useless-in-the-future/comment-page-1/#comment-225522 Anne Helmond Tue, 23 Oct 2007 07:57:50 +0000 http://www.blogherald.com/2007/10/22/good-news-for-splogs-word-verification-aka-captchas-may-become-useless-in-the-future/#comment-225522 Even though I dislike CAPTCHA's as they sometimes refrain me from commenting (especially after two failed attempts) I recently discovered that there is a nice concept behind them. Von Ahn, who helped develop CAPTCHA, developped a new variant called reCAPTCHA: <blockquote> reCAPTCHA is the process of utilizing CAPTCHA to improve the process of digitizing books. It takes scanned words that optical character recognition software reported undetectable and presents them for humans to decipher as CAPTCHA words alongside words recognized by the computer. (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReCAPTCHA" rel="nofollow">Wikipedia</a>) </blockquote> CAPTCHAs are being used in a distributed system where human intelligence is helping "book-scanning project of the Internet Archive, a nonprofit project in San Francisco that aims to digitize millions of public-domain books and put them online for free." (<a href="http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/15-07/ff_humancomp?currentPage=4" rel="nofollow">Wired Magazine</a>) It made me reconsider CAPTCHAs that are still a barrier to commenting but have a good side nonetheless. Even though I dislike CAPTCHA’s as they sometimes refrain me from commenting (especially after two failed attempts) I recently discovered that there is a nice concept behind them.
Von Ahn, who helped develop CAPTCHA, developped a new variant called reCAPTCHA:

reCAPTCHA is the process of utilizing CAPTCHA to improve the process of digitizing books. It takes scanned words that optical character recognition software reported undetectable and presents them for humans to decipher as CAPTCHA words alongside words recognized by the computer. (Wikipedia)

CAPTCHAs are being used in a distributed system where human intelligence is helping “book-scanning project of the Internet Archive, a nonprofit project in San Francisco that aims to digitize millions of public-domain books and put them online for free.” (Wired Magazine)

It made me reconsider CAPTCHAs that are still a barrier to commenting but have a good side nonetheless.

]]> By: Anti Virus Software » Good News For Splogs! Word Verification (aka CAPTCHA’s) May Become … http://www.blogherald.com/2007/10/22/good-news-for-splogs-word-verification-aka-captchas-may-become-useless-in-the-future/comment-page-1/#comment-225457 Anti Virus Software » Good News For Splogs! Word Verification (aka CAPTCHA’s) May Become … Tue, 23 Oct 2007 05:02:16 +0000 http://www.blogherald.com/2007/10/22/good-news-for-splogs-word-verification-aka-captchas-may-become-useless-in-the-future/#comment-225457 [...] andrei@serdeliuc.ro article is very informativeHere’s a small piece of the storyIn an age where spammers choose to promote themselves by harassing others, many bloggers, social networks, etc. have resorted to using CAPTHA’s as an inexpensive way to keep fake machine comments/user names/purchases from flooding their … [...] [...] andrei@serdeliuc.ro article is very informativeHere’s a small piece of the storyIn an age where spammers choose to promote themselves by harassing others, many bloggers, social networks, etc. have resorted to using CAPTHA’s as an inexpensive way to keep fake machine comments/user names/purchases from flooding their … [...]

]]> By: I Might Make An Anti-Spam Plugin http://www.blogherald.com/2007/10/22/good-news-for-splogs-word-verification-aka-captchas-may-become-useless-in-the-future/comment-page-1/#comment-225300 I Might Make An Anti-Spam Plugin Mon, 22 Oct 2007 21:48:40 +0000 http://www.blogherald.com/2007/10/22/good-news-for-splogs-word-verification-aka-captchas-may-become-useless-in-the-future/#comment-225300 [...] just saw a post over at The Blog Herald about CAPTCHAs becoming worthless. It got me thinking about comment [...] [...] just saw a post over at The Blog Herald about CAPTCHAs becoming worthless. It got me thinking about comment [...]

]]>