In 2007, Google launched its bot-detection system reCAPTCHA which set the tone for a decade of deciphering the garbled text, ticking traffic light boxes and repetitively hitting tiny boxes to prove our humanity in order to gain access to the sites which we wish to view. The new Google reCAPTCHA, however, eliminates the cumbersome process that has trailed it the past couple of year as it dumps the need for user interaction totally and relies on adaptive risk analysis to pick up suspicious traffic,
The new version of Google’s ReCaptcha runs in the background of website aggregating scores from 0.1 to 1 (bad to good) of user interactions and behaviors with the site. Site admins have access to these scores and are able to react t based on the scores in one of any three ways that have been made available.
Google explains in a statement made on its webmaster blog how admins can liaison the scores at its disposal and how to react to them in the three ways available.
“First, you can set a threshold that determines when a user is let through or when further verification needs to be done, for example, using two-factor authentication and phone verification”
Speaking further on admin reaction to user scores, it goes on to say.
“Second, you can combine the score with your own signals that reCAPTCHA can’t access—such as user profiles or transaction histories. Third, you can use the reCAPTCHA score as one of the signals to train your machine learning model to fight abuse.”
While the new feature might mean more work for site admins many would be happy that they have more control over how they handle their sites traffic. Users will also likely appreciate the development which seems to promise a seamless browsing experience, one where you no longer need to click boxes.
