I couldn't decide whether I should create CAPTCHA poetry, a book of dodgy CAPTCHAs or something else. Well, some clever sod thought, why don't we advertise in these CAPTCHAs and force people to type in our advertising message?
Here's an example of what I'm talking about.
Dish Network are advertising inside of a CAPTCHA screen. And simply want you to read their message and then make sure you're a human by typing in "$180 savings". It's as simple as that. Dammit.
I've always thought that CAPTCHA was annoying, but useful. It stops bots from spamming things, but it isn't as secure as your bank account (I'm guessing). As a result, this placement of advertising seems a fairly good compromise between security, and not being bombarded by advertising. Especially if you could target your CAPTCHA advertising. Which, no doubt very soon you'll be able to.
Any brand, no matter how big or small, could target a localised audience. Perhaps you're posting on a local newspaper's article and Joe Bloggs Plumbers Ltd. wants a piece of the action.
On the other hand a comment on Mashable could see Apple or Windows go head to head with anything they want.
The beauty of this kind of advertising is that you could control what goes in the CAPTCHA box. Perhaps "go compare, go compare" would get on my nuts, but what the hell. For those ten or so characters you can tell them to say anything. "Just do it", "aaaaahh Bisto", "no. 1 for 3 years running", I could go on. The list is nearly endless.
And, having looked at the current crop of CAPTCHAs I currently have stored in a folder, you'll have to wait for that novel. Or, any decent poetry.