5 ms·

> Part of it is the sheer hassle of repeatedly identifying objects — traffic lights, staircases, palm trees and buses — just so I can finish a web search. Does

> Part of it is the sheer hassle of repeatedly identifying objects — traffic lights, staircases, palm trees and buses — just so I can finish a web search. Does Google ask you to complete a CAPTCHA to run a web search? I've never experienced that - is that a thing?

duped 5y ago
It happens to me all the time after I started using VPNs regularly.
crazygringo 5y ago
If you're accessing via a VPN, not logged into a Google account, doing a bunch of searches quickly... absolutely. Basically, the more you appear like you might be trying to scrape Google results or otherwise abuse Google with an unreasonable quantity of requests, it'll ask you to prove you're human and not a bot.
- Izkata 5y ago
  I occasionally get them even while logged in. I assume it's some combination of VPN, browser privacy features, and the browser search shortcut (instead of going through google.com or changing the search from another results page).
semperdark 5y ago
If Google doesn't trust your browser for whatever reason (eg. privacy-conscious browsing).
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
kenniskrag 5y ago
on tor browser it shows them always.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
nullc 5y ago
It's a thing. Turn up privacy features in your browser (including the undocumented ones you need to go to about:config to adjust) and stay logged out of google and you'll get them. Or just fire off a lot of searches pretty fast e.g. by launching a bunch of tabs to search for variations of a term.
- chrisseaton 5y ago
  > including the undocumented ones you need to go to about:config to adjust about:config isn't a thing in my browser.
  - danuker 5y ago
    you're using the wrong browser
- PhasmaFelis 5y ago
  If privacy was that important to me, I'd be using DuckDuckGo instead of Google.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - danuker 5y ago
    In my experience, I find DDG results less relevant. I settled on Yandex. The only problem sometimes is that results from "internationalized" sites are in Russian.
jeroenhd 5y ago
If Google deems your request suspicious enough, yes. You can try this yourself by Googling something suspicious, like common Google dorks. After a few variations of WordPress/phpAdmin Google dorks, you'll get a popup asking you to fill out a CAPTCHA to continue. If you share your IP with lots of people (CGNAT, schools, large offices) then enough weird Googling can get the entire IP address stuck behind CAPTCHA's for a while. It usually clears after a few minutes, but I've seen it last for up to an hour when someone in the network was doing something they shouldn't have been doing.
- chrisseaton 5y ago
  > like common Google dorks What is a 'Google dork' and what are the common ones?
  - jeroenhd 5y ago
    Google Dorks are search terms that can find vulnerable services, open directories, that kind of stuff. Stuff you shouldn't put publically on a web server that a search engine manages to find. This is an example: >intext:phpMyAdmin SQL Dump filetype:sql intext:INSERT INTO `admin` (`id`, `user`, `password`) VALUES It'll find publicly accessible phpMyAdmin backups, so don't click any of the results if you want to stay in the legal side of things. Googling "Google dork" or "Google hacking" should provide you with more examples. If you try modifying the query a few times, Google will make you fill out a captcha.
- xdennis 5y ago
  You can get CAPTCHAs just by turning on a VPN. You don't need to do anything more "suspicious" than that.
  - jeroenhd 5y ago
    I've never experienced this myself. I suppose it depends on what data center the VPN provider is in and what kind of VPN you're using?
lordgrenville 5y ago
I get these pretty often on Firefox Focus (Android), not because of any unusual searches (as far as I can tell)! It did at least push me to switch the default search to DDG.
benjaminpv 5y ago
Several people mentioned ways you can trigger it using 'nonstandard' (by Google's expectation) methods. In my case I hit it with just regular Chrome whenever I start doing a few searches that use more than basic keywords (so stuff that uses the prefixes like filetype: or parenthesis for logic)
sdiq 5y ago
Yes for me it is. I exclusively use a non chromium based browser with some extensions installed and always logged off Google.
csydas 5y ago
If you're not in the US, all the time. Just searching for documentation on not so well known libraries/errors will often trigger it for me, and I'm talking like 5-10 manual (read: typed by myself into a browser) searches will trigger a Captcha on Google. Google positions that it suspects suspicious activity from my IP, but hard to guess how they classify this, as it's a stock browser with ublock* that I use every day. reCaptcha and basically everything Google touches is awful to use outside of the US in my opinion. And I'm still not sure how their full window modal for Google Search Accepting Privacy hasn't been hit by a huge fine by the EU yet, since you absolutely cannot use Google without either blocking the model or going in and agreeing to "something" (you are allowed to turn off several options, but Google will send cookies and instructs you to set your browser to refuse cookies if you don't want them), which I'm positive is really not what GDPR was about at all. This is part of why I'm against what a lot of US based tech companies do with the Web...they're happy to take money and personal information (forcibly) from non-US persons, but will not give them the same courtesies. * Of course, maybe that does it...
- chrisseaton 5y ago
  > If you're not in the US, all the time. I'm not in the US, never seen it.
paulpauper 5y ago
tor is great if you don't mind 99% of websites not working on it

duped 5y ago

It happens to me all the time after I started using VPNs regularly.

crazygringo 5y ago

If you're accessing via a VPN, not logged into a Google account, doing a bunch of searches quickly... absolutely. Basically, the more you appear like you might be trying to scrape Google results or otherwise abuse Google with an unreasonable quantity of requests, it'll ask you to prove you're human and not a bot.

Izkata 5y ago
I occasionally get them even while logged in. I assume it's some combination of VPN, browser privacy features, and the browser search shortcut (instead of going through google.com or changing the search from another results page).

semperdark 5y ago

If Google doesn't trust your browser for whatever reason (eg. privacy-conscious browsing).

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

kenniskrag 5y ago

on tor browser it shows them always.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

nullc 5y ago

It's a thing. Turn up privacy features in your browser (including the undocumented ones you need to go to about:config to adjust) and stay logged out of google and you'll get them. Or just fire off a lot of searches pretty fast e.g. by launching a bunch of tabs to search for variations of a term.

chrisseaton 5y ago
> including the undocumented ones you need to go to about:config to adjust about:config isn't a thing in my browser.
- danuker 5y ago
  you're using the wrong browser
PhasmaFelis 5y ago
If privacy was that important to me, I'd be using DuckDuckGo instead of Google.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- danuker 5y ago
  In my experience, I find DDG results less relevant. I settled on Yandex. The only problem sometimes is that results from "internationalized" sites are in Russian.

jeroenhd 5y ago

If Google deems your request suspicious enough, yes. You can try this yourself by Googling something suspicious, like common Google dorks. After a few variations of WordPress/phpAdmin Google dorks, you'll get a popup asking you to fill out a CAPTCHA to continue. If you share your IP with lots of people (CGNAT, schools, large offices) then enough weird Googling can get the entire IP address stuck behind CAPTCHA's for a while. It usually clears after a few minutes, but I've seen it last for up to an hour when someone in the network was doing something they shouldn't have been doing.

chrisseaton 5y ago
> like common Google dorks What is a 'Google dork' and what are the common ones?
- jeroenhd 5y ago
  Google Dorks are search terms that can find vulnerable services, open directories, that kind of stuff. Stuff you shouldn't put publically on a web server that a search engine manages to find. This is an example: >intext:phpMyAdmin SQL Dump filetype:sql intext:INSERT INTO `admin` (`id`, `user`, `password`) VALUES It'll find publicly accessible phpMyAdmin backups, so don't click any of the results if you want to stay in the legal side of things. Googling "Google dork" or "Google hacking" should provide you with more examples. If you try modifying the query a few times, Google will make you fill out a captcha.
xdennis 5y ago
You can get CAPTCHAs just by turning on a VPN. You don't need to do anything more "suspicious" than that.
- jeroenhd 5y ago
  I've never experienced this myself. I suppose it depends on what data center the VPN provider is in and what kind of VPN you're using?

lordgrenville 5y ago

I get these pretty often on Firefox Focus (Android), not because of any unusual searches (as far as I can tell)! It did at least push me to switch the default search to DDG.

benjaminpv 5y ago

Several people mentioned ways you can trigger it using 'nonstandard' (by Google's expectation) methods. In my case I hit it with just regular Chrome whenever I start doing a few searches that use more than basic keywords (so stuff that uses the prefixes like filetype: or parenthesis for logic)

sdiq 5y ago

Yes for me it is. I exclusively use a non chromium based browser with some extensions installed and always logged off Google.

csydas 5y ago

If you're not in the US, all the time. Just searching for documentation on not so well known libraries/errors will often trigger it for me, and I'm talking like 5-10 manual (read: typed by myself into a browser) searches will trigger a Captcha on Google. Google positions that it suspects suspicious activity from my IP, but hard to guess how they classify this, as it's a stock browser with ublock* that I use every day. reCaptcha and basically everything Google touches is awful to use outside of the US in my opinion. And I'm still not sure how their full window modal for Google Search Accepting Privacy hasn't been hit by a huge fine by the EU yet, since you absolutely cannot use Google without either blocking the model or going in and agreeing to "something" (you are allowed to turn off several options, but Google will send cookies and instructs you to set your browser to refuse cookies if you don't want them), which I'm positive is really not what GDPR was about at all. This is part of why I'm against what a lot of US based tech companies do with the Web...they're happy to take money and personal information (forcibly) from non-US persons, but will not give them the same courtesies. * Of course, maybe that does it...

chrisseaton 5y ago
> If you're not in the US, all the time. I'm not in the US, never seen it.

paulpauper 5y ago

tor is great if you don't mind 99% of websites not working on it