I’m not talking about the harmless stuff with puzzle pieces. I’m not even talking about matching or rotating shapes. I’m talking specifically about grids of crazy photos – something you might be familiar with from Google’s reCAPTCHA system. If you’re looking for the reason they exist or a measure of the effort to build a replacement, read this article. While I’ll note resentfully that the CAPTCHA exists to deter bots, and does a good job at that, I don’t feel measured.
Do you know how I feel? furious.
I want to buy a double feature ticket blade runner and RoboCop, just like you, after entering my credit card information, a scary ghost appeared. Verification code. I don’t need to solve a frustrating traffic map. I have to solve three problems.
Look, I have some cognitive issues with how to handle these things. For example: If you ask me to click on an image containing a motorcycle, and then show me an image of a motorcycle spread across all tiles, the correct number of tiles to click on will be zero.Because each square contains only part Motorcycle. That’s not what I was asked to do!
Things get worse. Sometimes I’m told to identify a bus, and one of the boxes contains a strange, blurry image that could be a bus or a train, but it doesn’t have enough background information for me to be able to identify it. Is there an “I don’t know” option? of course not.I don’t even have vision problems which I guess makes the whole experience better Worse.
I believe every reader is familiar with this experience edge. You may have even read a frustrating tirade like this one over the years. It’s bad enough when you have to fill out a form.But lately, when I’m trying to buy something, or even just sign up for an email list let someone sell to me — I had to fill out three copies. three! Why! Why! Why!
It’s already 2024. Doesn’t the technology industry need innovation?
So, here’s the tech industry’s New Year’s resolution: Kill this thing. Get rid of it. Looking for other ways to make sure I’m not a robot. I never want to click on a damn motorcycle again.
