Do You Need CAPTCHA?
A CAPTCHA or Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart is basically a kind of test that helps to distinguish a computer from a human being. It is under the trademark of Carnegie Mellon University. You can visit http://www.protectwebform.com/ for detailed information on CAPTCHA.
When you take the test that CAPTCHA gives you and give the right answer, it knows that you are a human. For instance, it will ask you to key in letters from a distorted image of alphabets and numbers. The machine will not be able to figure it out correctly. That makes it quite easy for CAPTCHA to know the difference. You can get further details from http://www.protectwebform.com/smartcaptcha.
Most website owners opt for a function wherein the visitors can send in their feedback without allowing spammers to barge in. The moment you post your email id on the net, you can rest assured of the attack from the spammers. Automated programs that are better known as bots have the ability to scan your website and parse out your mail id. The spammers use the email ids for many purposes without your knowledge or permission.
Another option is CAPTCHA that does not allow the spammers to get access to your email ids. Many websites and sign-up pages use CAPTHCA. It assumes that computer programs cannot read distorted characters. It is considered fairly reliable.
CAPTCHA can be said to be a program that has the capability to create tests which only humans can clear. The program is a fully automated program and no human intervention is required. Thus it is so much preferred by website owners. CAPTCHA has become very popular in the past few years.
CAPTCHAs prevent abuse of a system. Once spammers get access to your mail id, then you are trapped. You will be bombarded with spam mails and you can never be sure what your id will be used for.
Many email services and online blogs are the ones who could benefit most from CAPTCHA. If you have webmail accounts through Gmail, Hotmail, or Yahoo, you know how many spam e-mails seem to get into the system. In addition if you regularly read online blogs, you have likely seen some that have had a long string of spam postings. CAPTCHA can stop these posts from happening by catching the spamming programs before they have a chance to do their work.
There have been numerous efforts at creating CAPTCHAs that are handier. Such endeavours usually include the use of JavaScript, mathematical questions (like "what is 1+1"), or simple questions requiring common sense (for instance "what color is the sky"). These attempts infringe on one or both of the philosophy of CAPTCHAs. Either they cannot be automatically created or they can be easily split given the condition of false intelligence. So, the only security these CAPTCHAs provide is safety through obscurity.
The author, Oleg, is an expert on CAPTCHA design and development. Click to find out more about his revolutionary new Smart CAPTCHA technology.
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