CAPTCHA Using Ad-Based Verification

mk1004 writes "Yahoo news has an article explaining how the text-based CAPTCHA is giving way to ad-based challenge/response. It's claimed that users are faster at responding to familiar logos, shortening the amount of time they spend proving that they are human. From the article: 'Rather than taking just a mere glance to figure out, recent studies show that a typical CAPTCHA takes, on average, 14 seconds to solve, with some taking much, much longer. Multiply that by the millions and millions of verifications per day, and Web users as a whole are wasting years and years of their lives just trying to prove they're not actually computers. This has led many companies to abandon the age-old system in favor of something not only more secure, but also easier to use for your average Webgoer: Ad-based verification, which can actually cut the time it takes to complete the task in half.'"

more ads

[spokenoise]

It's only because some company will pay to use their logo or watch their mini movie for the answer.

translation

[the_Bionic_lemming]

Heh, This is a desperate attempt to stop people like me from adblocking so we can actually use the service.

Just ID computers

[pubwvj]

It would be better to simply prove that the computer is used reasonably and then stop presenting the captcha's after the initial few tests. If the computer starts being detected as a spammer then it must prove again, harder this time, that it is a valid user to become reaccepted. This would save time and processing power.

Yeah?

[WillKemp]

A fancy rationalization of a money making scam. Nobody's wasting years of their lives doing captchas. And what about those of us who have very low exposure to advertising - how are we supposed to recognize logos?

Re:Yeah?

[Spacejock]

And the logos - there's no point showing a US-centric firm's logo to an Aussie visitor, for example. I wouldn't know what most of them look like or who they represent.

Re:translation

[osu-neko]

... All the time an inane, loud commercial played for something I would never buy.

And yet, people get upset about targeting ads, as if that was a bad thing rather than a blessing.

Re: translation

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't let the door hit you on the way out. If you block ads, you're just a leech anyway,

Re:translation

[Anonymous Coward]

Doh, because the spam bots weren't configured/programmed to solve math problems.

Of course you'll find many humans aren't able to solve math problems either and thus have problems using your site. This may or may not be a feature depending on the type of site. For a site like slashdot it may be a feature if people who can't solve simple math problems are prevented from posting.