Google Introduces 'Invisible' CAPTCHA to Tell Humans and Bots Apart

Shelby Rogers

It appears Google found a new way to differentiate between humans and robots. The company removed the annoying CAPTCHA system in favor of a much less visible one. Google says no more input is needed for its 'invisible' system.

The Invisible CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart) comes as an evolutionary development from reCAPTCHA. Google acquired the company back in 2009.

Prior to the Invisible CAPTCHA system, users probably saw the reCAPTCHA pop up while browsing the web.

In late 2013, reCAPTCHA became responsible for all those "I'm not a robot" boxes. Those replaced typing out often tricky words into a box. Invisible reCAPTCHA allows users to even bypass the box. A background system will analyze the user's internet usage to determine whether or not it's human-like. The system even tracks mouse usage and patterns. If a user has a Google account, the reCAPTCHA will know even more about a user's normal activity - especially when trying to determine what classifies as "suspicious" activity.

“ReCAPTCHA is one of the most popular, if not the most popular, CAPTCHA mechanism on the internet today,” said former Google employee Shuman Ghosemajumder in an interview with Popular Science. “Google in general—and this is certainly a philosophy that we adhered to when I was there—believed that anything that is good for the internet, is good for Google.”

Google Introduces 'Invisible' CAPTCHA to Tell Humans and Bots Apart

[Image Source: Wikipedia Commons]

Google said they'll continue upgrading and perfecting the system. The company said the Invisible reCAPTCHA isn't perfect. However, it was simply meant to streamline the process for humans rather than pesky bots. For now, at least, no more typing in odd-looking phrases into tiny boxes.