Comments on: Solve Media Creates User Engagement With CAPTCHAs for Online Ads

By: Aaron Y Moss

Aaron Y Moss — Mon, 02 May 2011 18:48:13 +0000

The day I start seeing this system rolled out among any sites that I regularly visit is the day I switch to a competitor that does not use such an obnoxious and obtrusive form of advertisement.

While I understand the need for captcha, making users have to watch a video first is just plain silly, people (including myself) will just get frustrated with this in a short amout of time, and if anyone is thinking of using this system on a movie/music download site that uses a paid subscription, they would likely resort to piracy, remember those games that had unskippable intros? Remember how they got cracked fairly quckly after the release?

Another disadvantage is that not everyone can even watch these videos, some people in my area still use dial-up, mobile “broadband” or an ISP that throttles their connection. What about phones? Do you expect people to watch these on their phones, most people don’t know how to install flash on their phones and the iPhone doesn’t even support it. People on older PCs will struggle too as the video playback is choppy.

Well, that’s my rant over with

By: Elise Simmons

Elise Simmons — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 17:24:03 +0000

Solve Media recently announced the launch of Solve Media Insights, a new feature that offers in-unit survey capabilities for type-in ads. This feature will allow advertisers to survey consumer interactions with CAPTCHA ads to measure how effectively consumers remember the key brand messages that they have typed in.

By: Rigas Papagolos

Rigas Papagolos — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 18:59:15 +0000

I am not a professional advertiser. I am a simple consumer. I find that in general CAPTCHAs are a minor nuisance. The CAPTCHAs that are generated by SOLVE MEDIA are a MAJOR nuisance; I always leave a site that uses the SOLVE MEDIA CAPTCHAs with a negative feeling towards the site and the advertisers. I use the sites if it is a sole source for my purchase or information gathering but I always use alternative sites if they use a different type of CAPTCHAs.
As a consumer, I understand the need for CAPTCHAs but I think making the process of positive ID easier/less annoying should be the goal of site owners and advertisers. Advertising has its place we all know that without advertising we would not have all the free access we now enjoy. However, SOLVE MEDIA CAPTCHAs have made the process just as annoying as it can get. I visited this site today just to complain about SOLVE MEDIA CAPTCHAs. I do hope my “rant” has not wasted a lot of your time.

By: frank

frank — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 12:39:01 +0000

@tony the security is dynamic, based on hundreds of variables like IP, and images are pixelated differently even though you can’t tell with the naked eye

By: Tony

Tony — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 22:16:00 +0000

I don’t get this at all. If the words are so clear to read, does that not defeat the reason for making the words hard to read in the first place to avoid machines from reading it??

By: Jed Williams

Jed Williams — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 14:29:58 +0000

Alex,

I think what Ari means by traffic lift is simply that because these CAPTCHA codes are easier to crack, users will be less likely to prematurely abandon sites because of CAPTCHA frustration.

By: Elise Simmons

Elise Simmons — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 13:55:44 +0000

Hi Alex.

There is recent market research that studied the effectiveness of the type-in ads and their effect on consumers. The study found that not only were the type-in ads more memorable but that consumers did not find them to be a nuisance. In addition, Solve Media has a creative gallery with an example of type-in video ads. The one I viewed was about 15 seconds long and the user just typed in a quoted phrase that was on the screen as the preview played in the background. It was relatively simple.

By: alex K

alex K — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 00:11:24 +0000

interesting product…not sure if watching a 30 second video and then having to answer a quiz is any less bothersome to me as a user than trying to solve Recaptcha in 1 or two tries…almost seems worse – also, can you help explain how my site traffic will increase by putting a captcha in place?