By Bernard Maldonado
As I was surfing the Internet about a particular Captcha concept, I landed on a new term that caught my attention and diverted my reading.
It was an article that made reference to a new Captcha Tool that Yahoo is developing. According to the Article, Yahoo is working on a project called Pictcha. The article was published in March 2009 on a site called Techmynd and the author’s name is Hiroshi.
From what I gather, Pictcha is a static image based security device that includes a random JPG image with tags from the Internet, possibly from public photo repositories. The user must type in 2 or 3 matching tags that match the tags provided by the original website. If the user enters the tags correctly, then he or she satisfied the captcha requirements.
There are a couple of points that I would like to make here.
First, the sheer number of photos with tags on the Internet means that the pool of potential puzzles is huge. This is one fault of so many other captchas since their solutions are limited and can be hacked with a brute force style attach.
Second. The fact that the solution is not actually represented in the image means that OCR cannot be applied to this for automated solution. In fact, if Yahoo does a trace back by URL to the original photo, and secures the tag matching algorithm, then that would be a 2 step hack for spammers: acquiring the unique URL, then tracing it back to acquire the matching tags. Quite interesting.
Third, tags are in multiple languages and alphabet sets, so this could serve as a multi language security device.
Last, this captcha can fit into small spaces, so site designers and administrators can apply Yahoo Pictcha to most page layouts without a hitch. I have made reference to the physical size of some new Captcha tools and the challenge this poses to their use on media-rich websites.
On the other hand, there are some definite negatives that I can see from the surface.
One, This can still be solved remotely by Captcha Solving Teams paid by Spammers for rogue activities. Perhaps Yahoo has a mechanism to make this difficult. So we will have to wait and see what becomes of this.
Two (and this is a big point). the Official Yahoo Pictcha Site does not mention accessibility in any way. I wonder if the managers and programmers are placing any importance on this element when designing Pictcha? By the way, a group within Yahoo called the Economic and Social Systems Group at Yahoo Research developed Pictcha.
It is well known by Yahoo that their Captchas present a solid barrier for so many Internet surfers, Given the fact that so many blind and visually impaired people rely on Yahoo for email, chat, and group communications, I’m surprised that Yahoo does not proactively mention something on the Pictcha page to reassure people that accessibility will be addressed in some form or fashion.
If you visit the Yahoo Pictcha Sandbox website, you will notice a “Try it” link. Don’t bother clicking it since it does not take you to any demonstration. However, there is a “Submit a Comment” form that can be filled out. I encourage you, if you are inclined, to leave a respectful message for Yahoo indicating your concern about accessibility within any new Captcha project or technology. This is one way to communicate with them about this issue; I have already done so myself.
There is not much information on the website about Pictcha. I did not see any white papers or articles. In fact, doing a search for Pictcha on the Internet using Google, Yahoo, and Clusty did not reveal much information.
Does this mean it is a retired project? Or, is it so new that Yahoo has not yet published much information about their new Pictcha Captcha? Either way, I felt compelled to bring it to your attention in the form of this article so that you may be better informed about what companies are developing in the way of Captchas and spam control devices.
I hope you find this information .
Thank you.
Bernard Maldonado / Solona Captcha Solution Service
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