CAPTCHA 101: Intro for Beginners

Your palms are sweaty. You type at lightning speed. The deadline is just an hour away. You need quick access to several websites to do additional research and download some media content. You are already running out of time. To make matters worse, you always keep stumbling into some CAPTCHA tests. It gets frustrating.

You may have experienced that scenario quite often in your online work or perhaps even in your online entertainment. It happens to everyone. Many websites, web tools and online platforms nowadays have these in place. We know they make our life less convenient, but what are they really?

What is CAPTCHA?

CAPTCHA is a simple test to verify if the user is human or not. More specifically, it is a program to protect websites from program bots by generating random tests that only humans can answer and pass and not computer programs. It is a backronym for “Completely Automated Public Turing Test to tell Computers and Humans Apart,” coined by Luis von Ahn, Manuel Blum, Nicholas Hopper and John Langford of Carnegie Mellon University in 2000.

Uses of CAPTCHA

While some of us users dislike CAPTCHA, they are helpful for a number of good reasons. They prevent comment spams in blogs, protect web site registrations, protect email addresses from scrapers, email worms and spams, regulate online polls, prevent dictionary attacks on password systems, and keep search engine bots away.

But is there a way to circumvent it and get to our content and downloads immediately? Well, you bet there is!

Circumventing CAPTCHA

Offcloud is one of the best and most efficient cloud-based download managers out there that has the unique ability to automatically unlock CAPTCHA and other downloading restrictions so you can enjoy your downloading experience better or focus more on your work. You’ve got to try it yourself to believe it!

Offcloud: for you, wherever you are

Offcloud has plenty of other features to give you the convenience you need, no matter where you are. We can instantly fetch and download content from the web, allowing you to store it with us, or a cloud storage option of your choice. We offer you a secure place to backup your items, files, software packages and entertainment too – allowing you to access the things you need wherever you are.