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reCAPTCHA also just doesn't work in the most populous country in the world. translate.google.cn does, but Google's reCAPTCHA does not. This is a big pain poin

reCAPTCHA also just doesn't work in the most populous country in the world. translate.google.cn does, but Google's reCAPTCHA does not. This is a big pain point. Thanks for the link to turingtest, I will certainly test it.

shawnz 7y ago
I thought recaptcha provided alternate domains/hosts not linked to Google so that you can use it in China. Is that not the case anymore?
- novaleaf 7y ago
  if this is true, I'd love to hear the alternate! I use recaptcha and hate that my chinese customers need to do wacky stuff to circumvent it.
  - vinay_ys 7y ago
    Just out of curiosity, why do you use reCaptcha?
  - judge2020 7y ago
    Not sure if this is "officially" supported but I believe you can proxy the `api.js` file yourself without issue.
    - fasthandle 7y ago
      The photos or voice still needs to come from from somewhere. The somewhere is google.com. The .com is blocked.
      - shawnz 7y ago
        Please see my other reply in this thread: "recaptcha.net" can also be used. Is that blocked in China too? I can't find a clear answer.
        fasthandle 7y ago
        I pinged recapture.net and got a 50ms response time. Baidu would give a 20ms response time. That's on WiFi. That leads me to think the server responding to these pings is in certainly in mainland China, I think in Alibaba's IP range, but probably not a CDN. Interesting, thanks.
  - shawnz 7y ago
    See: https://developers.google.com/recaptcha/docs/faq https://developers.google.com/recaptcha/docs/faq Look under the section "use recaptcha globally" -- this is what I was referring to. However it's not clear to me if this approach enables use in China or not.
    - Theodores 7y ago
      Thanks for that. Changing to www.recaptcha.net right now! Could be a while before I get enquiries from China but there is only one way to find out. Google did say 'globally'...
  - mdekkers 7y ago
    >I use recaptcha Please consider not using recaptcha, it is the herpes of the web.
- fasthandle 7y ago
  reCAPTCHA does not work in China mainland (it does in HK, but that's different for now). But translate.google.cn (note the .cn) works fine. Similar visual recaptchs used on Chinese services tend to focus on Chinese characters on a low resolution picture background. Training for street names? I don't know Resolving to google.com does not resolve (gmail does, a bit, IMAP but only every few hours or days, depending on connection sans VPN).
granshaw 7y ago
To be fair, lots of things on the internet don’t work in the most populous country in the world.
- fasthandle 7y ago
  You're correct, quite a lot of things are not accessible in the most populous country in the world. However, federated things are accessible. The big names Facebook/Twitter/Youtube/Google are blocked, and the services below them. However it is a blacklist of blocked not a whitelist of accessible. Putting google analytics traction in a header of a federated blog, meaning it's actually not federated, is indeed a stupid pain. China internet is restricted, but it is only restricted 'enough' for the current power. Edit: And that seems good enough for now. Wechat 'moments' and use of Tiktok, from my observation of friends or even taking the train, are on a steep decline. Wechat's future seems mainly as a commercial P2Passist or very simple blog platform. Both dropped the ball and mobile payments will not disappear but the tide has turned (NFC, anyone? this was an already solved problem. The only real challenger bank China has is China Merchants Bank but they're after merchants, the clue in the name. For customer service and being one to perhaps pull a rabbit out of the hat, China Construction Bank. I have no idea how BEA didn't grab mobile payments.
- taf2 7y ago
  Could it have something to do with the most populous country in the world blocking the rest of the world? For fear someone might massacre square...
  - fasthandle 7y ago
    Hmmm.. ok.. I could and should write something on this a lot longer. The government facilitate corruption. The government is a hegemony. Aside from that broad shot, 10 years ago you enter the aforementioned square freely, not only after going through a 'police' security check, bags x-rayed, IDs checked.
- idoubtit 7y ago
  > the most populous country in the world The United Nations estimates the current population of China around 50,000 more than the population of India. Given the uncertainty of these numbers, I can't exclude that India already has the most numerous population.
baybal2 7y ago
I find it ironic that out of all things google, it was translate.google.cn to be given an exemption. There is a meme going around that this was country's chief censor's personal decision.
dmitrygr 7y ago
reCaptcha works just fine in India. It does have some troubles in the world's second most populous country.
- roboys 7y ago
  reCaptcha may be racist against black people. I hear a lot of AI is, google dropped the ball here.
- collinmanderson 7y ago
  Source for India being most populous? All sources I can find say that population of China is bigger than India.

shawnz 7y ago

I thought recaptcha provided alternate domains/hosts not linked to Google so that you can use it in China. Is that not the case anymore?

novaleaf 7y ago
if this is true, I'd love to hear the alternate! I use recaptcha and hate that my chinese customers need to do wacky stuff to circumvent it.
- vinay_ys 7y ago
  Just out of curiosity, why do you use reCaptcha?
- judge2020 7y ago
  Not sure if this is "officially" supported but I believe you can proxy the `api.js` file yourself without issue.
  - fasthandle 7y ago
    The photos or voice still needs to come from from somewhere. The somewhere is google.com. The .com is blocked.
    - shawnz 7y ago
      Please see my other reply in this thread: "recaptcha.net" can also be used. Is that blocked in China too? I can't find a clear answer.
      - fasthandle 7y ago
        I pinged recapture.net and got a 50ms response time. Baidu would give a 20ms response time. That's on WiFi. That leads me to think the server responding to these pings is in certainly in mainland China, I think in Alibaba's IP range, but probably not a CDN. Interesting, thanks.
- shawnz 7y ago
  See: https://developers.google.com/recaptcha/docs/faq https://developers.google.com/recaptcha/docs/faq Look under the section "use recaptcha globally" -- this is what I was referring to. However it's not clear to me if this approach enables use in China or not.
  - Theodores 7y ago
    Thanks for that. Changing to www.recaptcha.net right now! Could be a while before I get enquiries from China but there is only one way to find out. Google did say 'globally'...
- mdekkers 7y ago
  >I use recaptcha Please consider not using recaptcha, it is the herpes of the web.
fasthandle 7y ago
reCAPTCHA does not work in China mainland (it does in HK, but that's different for now). But translate.google.cn (note the .cn) works fine. Similar visual recaptchs used on Chinese services tend to focus on Chinese characters on a low resolution picture background. Training for street names? I don't know Resolving to google.com does not resolve (gmail does, a bit, IMAP but only every few hours or days, depending on connection sans VPN).

granshaw 7y ago

To be fair, lots of things on the internet don’t work in the most populous country in the world.

fasthandle 7y ago
You're correct, quite a lot of things are not accessible in the most populous country in the world. However, federated things are accessible. The big names Facebook/Twitter/Youtube/Google are blocked, and the services below them. However it is a blacklist of blocked not a whitelist of accessible. Putting google analytics traction in a header of a federated blog, meaning it's actually not federated, is indeed a stupid pain. China internet is restricted, but it is only restricted 'enough' for the current power. Edit: And that seems good enough for now. Wechat 'moments' and use of Tiktok, from my observation of friends or even taking the train, are on a steep decline. Wechat's future seems mainly as a commercial P2Passist or very simple blog platform. Both dropped the ball and mobile payments will not disappear but the tide has turned (NFC, anyone? this was an already solved problem. The only real challenger bank China has is China Merchants Bank but they're after merchants, the clue in the name. For customer service and being one to perhaps pull a rabbit out of the hat, China Construction Bank. I have no idea how BEA didn't grab mobile payments.
taf2 7y ago
Could it have something to do with the most populous country in the world blocking the rest of the world? For fear someone might massacre square...
- fasthandle 7y ago
  Hmmm.. ok.. I could and should write something on this a lot longer. The government facilitate corruption. The government is a hegemony. Aside from that broad shot, 10 years ago you enter the aforementioned square freely, not only after going through a 'police' security check, bags x-rayed, IDs checked.
idoubtit 7y ago
> the most populous country in the world The United Nations estimates the current population of China around 50,000 more than the population of India. Given the uncertainty of these numbers, I can't exclude that India already has the most numerous population.

baybal2 7y ago

I find it ironic that out of all things google, it was translate.google.cn to be given an exemption. There is a meme going around that this was country's chief censor's personal decision.

dmitrygr 7y ago

reCaptcha works just fine in India. It does have some troubles in the world's second most populous country.

roboys 7y ago
reCaptcha may be racist against black people. I hear a lot of AI is, google dropped the ball here.
collinmanderson 7y ago
Source for India being most populous? All sources I can find say that population of China is bigger than India.