reCAPTCHA

What is reCAPTCHA?

reCAPTCHA is a free service that leverages risk analysis techniques to differentiate between human and automated access to websites. The latest version aims to minimize user interaction, utilizing machine learning to analyze user actions and determine if they are a bot. If a user fails the analysis, they may be asked to identify typically road-related items, which serves the dual purpose of verifying the user's humanity and contributing to the training of Google's self-driving car project. The original reCAPTCHA system was designed as a mass collaboration platform for the digitization of books, using pairs of words from scanned pages to crowdsource the reading of uncertain words. This service was acquired by Google in 2009 and has since been used for digitizing archives, such as those of The New York Times, as well as for Google Books. The system is free for up to 1 million calls per month, with a fee of $1 per 1,000 calls thereafter, up to a maximum of 10,000,000 calls

Highlights

• Utilizes risk analysis techniques to differentiate between human and automated access
• Aims to minimize user interaction through machine learning analysis of user actions
• Crowdsources the reading of uncertain words from scanned pages to contribute to digitization efforts
• Used for digitizing archives and books, including The New York Times and Google Books
• Offers free service for up to 1 million calls per month, with a fee for additional calls