Google Buys reCAPTCHA
There’s nothing we love more than warped words (or random numbers and letters) we have to type in before we’re allowed to comment. These CAPTCHAs cut down on spam (and, sometimes, legitimate comments. grrr.)—and every once in a while, someone comes along with a great idea to make that kind of technology useful, like reCAPTCHA using words scanned from old texts that OCR software can’t recognize.
A great idea, right? It’s so popular more than 100,000 websites have signed up to use the specialized CAPTCHAs, including Facebook and craigslist. I’m sure you can guess how this story ends: Google buys reCAPTCHA.
This is doubly beneficial for Google:
- They get cooler CAPTCHAs than the random strings of letters they’ve been using on Blogger and other services.
- They get free help decipher unintelligible words in their Google Books, Google News Archive and other scanning projects
Of course, there’s one little problem on this cool feature—if the computer couldn’t recognize the word in the first place, how will it know if you typed the right one? That’s what the second word is for—one of the words is one the computer already knows.
reCAPTCHA was a free, open source project, so with the way it’s structured now, it won’t be adding to Google’s bottom line.
What do you think? How else can this be beneficial to Google? Are they likely to start charging large clients for reCAPTCHAs?
Shiny Future for Chrome?
For all of the talk of social media, software as a service (SaaS) and the future of the Internet one of the most important components for delivery is that workhorse of the whole deal; the browser. Right now, Internet Explorer is the market leader with Firefox a solid second. While Safari will always be limited to the Mac-iverse the introduction of Chrome version 3 for the PC reminds us that Google needs to be a part of this mix as well. Hey, it wouldn’t be the Internet unless Google was involved, right?
TechCrunch reports that there is more to the picture though as revealed in an interview by Reuters like Mac users finally getting their chance to see their reflection in the Chrome world.
While Chrome currently has just under 3 percent of the browser market currently, a year from now, they’re planning to have at least 5 percent. More importantly, 2 years from now, if Chrome doesn’t have at least 10 percent share, Google will be “exceptionally disappointed,” Chrome Engineering Director Linus Upson told Reuters. And Google’s own internal projections for the browser are even higher, apparently.
But Google also has a big wildcard it has yet to play: Mac support. And in the same Reuters article, Google confirmed that its Chrome for Mac will be available before the end of this year.
As pointed out in the article, right now Mac users are a bit stuck with a slow Firefox experience but a lot of add-ons or a quicker Safari with fewer bells and whistles. Chrome for the Mac promises to bring both to the table. Personally, I am very excited because I am wearing out the force quit on Firefox as a recent Mac convert. TC’s MG Siegler makes takes the anticipation to another level
Chrome promises to bring a combination of both speed and plug-ins to the Mac. I’ve been using the developer builds of Chromium (the open source project behind Chrome) for months now, and it’s definitely getting really, really close to being ready for prime time.
I’m in. What’s your browser preference and does Chrome look to be a part of your future?
Pilgrim’s Partners: SponsoredReviews.com – Bloggers earn cash, Advertisers build buzz!
