If you've ever tried to register on a website or comment on a blog and were asked to enter a bunch of strange characters all mixed up, you know how frustrating it can be trying to figure out how to tell a lowercase L from a number 1 or an uppercase O from a number 0.
How does CAPTCHA work?
These crazy letter and number codes are called CAPTCHA and are essentially a human response test. The word is an acronym for: Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart.
The reason websites implement CAPTCHA codes into their registration processes is because of spam. Those crazy characters are a way to verify that the person registering or attempting to comment is a live human being rather than a computer program trying to spam the site. Yep, it’s the same reason most of us have some form of spam blocker on our email.
Spam is the modern equivalent of junk mail. If spammers were in charge, junk mail wouldn’t just be in your mailbox or stuck to your doorknob. It would litter your yard, bury the car parked in your driveway, plaster every side of your house, and cover your roof.
