Let’s Recap reCAPTCHA: What Is It and Why Is It So Important?
by admin
Posted on July 21, 2015 at 14:07 PM
For almost any business or industry, a website is as necessary as a business email or phone number. These days, it’s your portfolio, calling card and the first impression most people get of who you are as a brand. In other words, you should treat your website as one of the most critical marketing pieces of all. It goes without saying that over the years, the internet has borne some less than savory characters who are looking for gaps in website security to fill with their spammy content. Enter reCAPTCHA, a service that protects your website from unwelcome spam.
Google’s reCAPTCHA explanation sums it up best; “reCAPTCHA uses an advanced risk analysis engine and adaptive CAPTCHAs to keep automated software from engaging in abusive activitives on your site. It does this while letting your valid users pass through with ease.” In other words, a simple form addition to your website’s contact page and other forms can mean the difference between gaining a legit customer and a bot looking to gunk up your server with 50 submissions of useless junk.
ReCAPTCHA uses advanced techniques, including looking at your history of entering reCAPTCHA in the past on your specific IP address, and offers a cue or image to solve or decode that will distinguish you from bots. It normally looks something like this:
Some of the newer reCAPTCHAs look like this:.
FUN FACT: ReCAPTCHA is not just great for spam protection. Every time someone completes a reCAPTCHA verification, they are helping to digitize text and annotate images. Each image used in reCAPTCHA is somehow attached to a book, map or other copy that needs to be transcribed. It’s like a global transcription service!
If you have a contact form, comments section, or any other type of submission-style form and don’t have reCAPTCHA, you are opening up your site to automated spam and malicious malware. Nobody’s got time for that. If you need reCAPTCHA, you can get started here.
