Personally I use Chrome for most of the work I do from a computer. I may use MS Edge (rarely) or Firefox to test outside of the Google Chrome environment. While doing some of that testing I was surprised to see that it can be difficult to enter some information to get past this Google Recaptcha 2 screen below.
Sometimes I have had to go through 3 iterations to get through. I have noted in my case however, and it may be a coincidence; if I am using Google Chrome, I don’t see this image very often, possibly because there is something in Chrome that can interact with Google reCaptcha. If I am using Firefox I do. That implies that you are favouring one browser over another should that be the case. All should be treated equally because you cannot tell which browser someone will use. The browsing experience should be the same for everyone.
Someone contacted me this week to tell me that they have been struggling to get past this to enter a mail system, or enter some form data for some time.
Why is it there?
The reason we use anti spam measures like this is because there are computers often referred to as “bots” that scan websites looking for forms and they fill them in and post them. What you get in your inbox is a spam message of no value what so ever. So Google and others have come up with this system where you need to confirm you are human (and able to interpret what is in an image) as opposed to a computer that cannot easily tell what is in an image.
Other solutions
Right now Google has a version 3 at Beta testing stage which they will roll out at some point. This examines the users interaction with the website and determines a score which influences whether the data being submitted is spam or not.
Most forms however can have hidden fields called Honey Traps. They work on the basis that a human cannot see the field, so they don’t put anything into it. A computer however accessing the form over the web can see the field so they put something into the field, and are then detected as being a spammer.
I recommend that for the future we look at ease of use and accessibility from the users perspective to make sure it is easy to submit data through a website.
On the new Contact Form 7 I am using, there is a Honey Pot spam trap available, and a simple math test which achieves a similar result.
If you are currently stuck with Google Recaptcha 2, or your Google Recaptcha is not working (because it is version 1 which was withdrawn on the 31st of March) let me know and we can explore what else is available.