Google has launched reCAPTCHA version 3 that is a complete overhaul of the reCAPTCHA technology. The company first introduced this background check system back in 2007 and this is the 3rd major overhaul being sent to it. reCAPTCHA itself was initially introduced in 2014.
Designed to ward off bots on the internet, reCAPTCHA has proven to be useful but extremely annoying. However, with reCAPTCHA v3 Google aims to reduce this annoyance by no longer requiring any user interaction. No more squinting of eyes to read garbled codes or clicking on images of billboards.
Meet reCAPTCHA v3 - promises to offer a "frictionless user experience"
Google says that reCAPTCHA v3 will improve user experience by removing the need for challenges. The latest update to the technology runs adaptive risk analysis in the background to provide a score that will tell website owners how suspicious a user interaction is based on an average user behavior on that website.
The company will assign risk scores that go from 0.1 for bad to 1 for good. Sites admins will have the control to decide how their website should react based on these scores. Google says that by focusing on normal user interaction, the tool can detect abnormalities that could detect bots and abusive traffic.
"With reCAPTCHA v3, we are fundamentally changing how sites can test for human vs. bot activities by returning a score to tell you how suspicious an interaction is and eliminating the need to interrupt users with challenges at all," Google wrote last night. "reCAPTCHA v3 runs adaptive risk analysis in the background to alert you of suspicious traffic while letting your human users enjoy a frictionless experience on your site."
The company added that reCAPTCHA v3 gives the control and flexibility to the site owners to use this technology to their benefit. Not all websites have the same level or type of spam and abuse. By using v3, they can identify which pages are the most targeted by bots and if to add reCAPTCHA v3 to multiple pages.
While for the end user, this new system would bring easy interaction with websites, it does seem like a complex system for a web admin. However, they have apparently had a few months to test and try the new technology. With the promise of giving website owners control over how their website reacts to abusive traffic and not trust Google with its decision based on images and garbled text, it is likely that more website owners and visitors will start to appreciate this new technology.
- More information is available over at the official website.
