ReCAPTCHA's quality is going down

    What does the first word here say? Are they running out of readable ones?

    Comments and faves

    1. jkottke (51 months ago | reply)

      It always takes me at least twice with these damned things.

    2. vanderwal (51 months ago | reply)

      this captcha system is horrible. I am taking 3 to 5 takes with them. Often give up after 2 ties. Usually one word is clear the other is impossible.

    3. rvacapinta (51 months ago | reply)

      I may be missing something. Isn't this how recaptcha is supposed to work?

      "Each new word that cannot be read correctly by OCR is given to a user in conjunction with another word for which the answer is already known. The user is then asked to read both words. If they solve the one for which the answer is known, the system assumes their answer is correct for the new one."

      If that first word was clear, then the OCR would have gotten it.

    4. mathowie (51 months ago | reply)

      But since the project launched, the words were readable, there'd just be a smear or a curved letter or something. They were like barely bad enough not to be OCR'd.

      It seems like now that they project has served out millions of readable captchas, they're down to the really godawful unreadable ones.

    5. Lalitree (51 months ago | reply)

      I have to use ReCAPTCHA every day at the USPTO.gov site, and while I do occasionally have to hit 'reload', I usually have no problem deciphering the words. I also quite enjoy the magnetic-poetry-like combos I get sometimes.

    6. Jesus H. Shatner (51 months ago | reply)

      Do they allow numeric strings as words? That could be a mangled "1134", say.

    7. rvacapinta (51 months ago | reply)

      Makes sense, Matt. So maybe they're now "done"!

    8. @tomh (51 months ago | reply)

      clearly, kittenAuth is the only way to go.

    9. Shawn Econo (49 months ago | reply)

      I think the first word is "taint." But ya got me with that second one. "Deshatnered" maybe?

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