An Easier Way To Prove You're Human When Buying Concert Tickets
By Ian Bush
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Maybe you've struggled with the CAPTCHA -- those obscure markings some web sites make you decipher before buying tickets or posting comments. Well, you're not alone. So, Ticketmaster is turning to a Philadelphia company to make things easier for us.
Instead of figuring out what those fuzzy, deformed letters and numbers spell, "We provide multiple types of puzzles," says Solve Media president Todd Lieberman. "And because we vary the types of puzzles we show users, it's harder for bots to defeat us, but easier for humans."
Lieberman says those puzzles could include simple multiple choice questions, or have you type in a tagline highlighted in a picture ad on the page.
"For someone like VW, it might be something simple like 'Das Auto.' Or FedEx, it may be 'Ship The Golf Clubs.'"
Meaning, Solve Media sells the idea, but Lieberman says it takes half the time of a normal CAPTCHA to figure out.
"That anxiety for buying tickets is significantly reduced."
And it maintains the point of the human-proving system: keeping automated software from scooping up whole sections of seats.
