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One of the main points of reCAPTCHA is to help digitize books, newspapers and old time radio shows. Everytime you use reCAPTCHA, you're helping in this effort.

One of the main points of reCAPTCHA is to help digitize books, newspapers and old time radio shows. Everytime you use reCAPTCHA, you're helping in this effort. I agree this is a nice alternative if it works for people not using reCAPTCHA but it'd be nice if more people would also use reCAPTCHA on their sites. Yes, it's free. http://www.google.com/recaptcha/learnmore http://www.google.com/recaptcha/learnmore http://www.google.com/recaptcha/whyrecaptcha http://www.google.com/recaptcha/whyrecaptcha

esalazar 14y ago
I agree that reCAPTCHA's mission is a noble one. That being said, it is REALLY annoying sometimes. I think even solutions that contribute to a noble cause will fall to easier and more intuitive ones (if they exist of course). Not that I necessarily think this is the answer, but a step in the right direction.
- twelvechairs 14y ago
  I'm not sure I can agree its 'noble'. Are the resulting digitisations going to be free to access for everyone? Is the OCR algorithm that I am helping to create? No. While it may use your time to 'do something useful' - which is nice, that something is also to Google's competitive advantage - so its really more good business sense than noble (to me at least)....
  - eddie_the_head 14y ago
    Yes, the resulting digitizations are free to everyone, they are old newspapers like old NYT issues and books whose copyright has expired and are now in the public domain. How do you think you are able to search for so many old books pre-digital age on Google Books and read digital versions of old NYT news articles?
    - twelvechairs 14y ago
      If this is true, why don't they say it on their website? why is there no link to the material created? The only digitised versions of the NYT articles I can find on the web are on the NYT website, and you have to pay for them (at least, if you want the first paragraph)... Can you provide me with some proof of what you say (links to free versions of the NYT for example)? Because I'm afraid I'm having a hard time believing it.

esalazar 14y ago

I agree that reCAPTCHA's mission is a noble one. That being said, it is REALLY annoying sometimes. I think even solutions that contribute to a noble cause will fall to easier and more intuitive ones (if they exist of course). Not that I necessarily think this is the answer, but a step in the right direction.

twelvechairs 14y ago
I'm not sure I can agree its 'noble'. Are the resulting digitisations going to be free to access for everyone? Is the OCR algorithm that I am helping to create? No. While it may use your time to 'do something useful' - which is nice, that something is also to Google's competitive advantage - so its really more good business sense than noble (to me at least)....
- eddie_the_head 14y ago
  Yes, the resulting digitizations are free to everyone, they are old newspapers like old NYT issues and books whose copyright has expired and are now in the public domain. How do you think you are able to search for so many old books pre-digital age on Google Books and read digital versions of old NYT news articles?
  - twelvechairs 14y ago
    If this is true, why don't they say it on their website? why is there no link to the material created? The only digitised versions of the NYT articles I can find on the web are on the NYT website, and you have to pay for them (at least, if you want the first paragraph)... Can you provide me with some proof of what you say (links to free versions of the NYT for example)? Because I'm afraid I'm having a hard time believing it.