If you already know what CAPTCHAS are and have refreshed
your memory regarding your internet experience with them, surely reCAPTCHAS
will also sound familiar to you. What are they and how are they different from
the first ones?
The reCAPTCHAS are an evolution of the CAPTCHAS , as it is
also a computer resource to verify human intervention in a web interaction
process, but in a much simpler way. Making reCAPTCHA consists of pressing a
button that says “I am not a robot”. If, after pressing it, the system is not
sure that you are not a robot, it will also be accompanied by one of the types
of CAPTCHAS that we have discussed.
How were reCAPTCHAS created?
The explanation of its origin is curious. The first
reCAPTCHAS that saw the light consisted of a verification process in which the
user had to identify words that came from texts that computers did not fully
understand and had to be digitized.
In this way, the system fulfilled a double function: to
verify that humans and not machines entered the web and, at the same time, to
help digitize texts. A project that Google bought in 2009 to digitize its
Google Books.
Over time, the technology of reCAPTCHAS evolved and, in
December 2014, they already began to limit their verification through the
famous click on the button that we all know now.
How was the change made possible?
Google had to make use of a complex system using internal
algorithms and a series of signals left by users while browsing: mouse
movement, IP address, active cookies and other parameters that are still secret
today.
