Captcha-style tool uses ads for user verification

It’s always inspiring to see an entrepreneur hit upon an idea that solves two problems at once. Case in point: New York-based Solve Media. Combining websites’ need for user authentication with advertisers’ ongoing need for consumer attention, the company has launched a captcha-style tool that addresses both ends. Rather than the nonsensical text or words in difficult-to-read fonts used by most captcha tools — typically requiring about 14 seconds for users to negotiate — Solve’s Type-Ins tool achieves website user verification by asking users to type in advertising text instead. The ad is simply placed where the cryptic text would be, and users must enter into a box the text presented within quotation marks — typically a brand message. (For security, slight variations in pixelation mean that no two Type-Ins are the same, according to a report in AdAge.) The process takes only 7 seconds using Solve’s system, yet advertisers are guaranteed to have the user’s attention for that full time. The result, according to Solve, is no less than 1,200 percent greater message recall than is typically achieved with a banner ad. Ads get remembered, websites verify their users, and ad revenue gets shared between Solve and its publisher partners. Advertisers and web publishers: what’s not to like? 😉 Spotted by: PSFK