Google Acquires reCaptcha Technology

Remember our blog about the controversial Google book deal? Well if you don't or if you missed it, Google is trying to develop an online library where authors can submit their work for compensation. The deal is all a part of a lawsuit against Google for scanning works for which it did not own the rights or permissions to do so.

Microsoft and Yahoo have joined forces with several non-profit efforts to revise the deal or halt it. Some of the issues cited are anti-trust, anti-privacy and anti-competitive behavior.

If anyone wasn't convinced about Google's determination to continue with their book scanning project at full steam, Google recently announced that it has acquired reCaptcha for an undisclosed sum. What is reCaptcha and what does it have to do with book scanning?

When you are prompted to "type in the letters you see in the box" you will usually see a field where you can enter text. Above that, you see a few distorted letters. Computers find it difficult to recognize letters that are distorted, so it's a safety precaution to make sure that it is in fact a human interacting with the website and not a computer or malicious program.

Many reCaptcha images are words taken from old newspapers where the ink and paper are obscured by wear and tear over the years. Google intends to use reCaptcha to teach computers how to recognize the distorted text so that their efforts to digitize books by physically scanning them will go smoothly. They will have technology that will compensate for irregularities so as not to sacrifice accuracy in the text.

It really is a smart idea. I can't help but wonder how soon the technology will spread and other computers and programs will also be able to "read" distorted text. At this point, the inability of computers to recognize text like this has made the use of reCaptcha one of the most effective online security measures a website can implement. Whose ingenious idea will compensate for its loss?

We'd like to announce that Jesse, our talented graphic designer (among other things) has a new baby boy! Congratulations Jesse!

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