The annoyance that are robots has led to more and more sites using human verification schemes. You know the sort I mean (try posting a comment here and you’ll see one) that prompt the user for a random phrase. Until the web robots learn how to read these they’re a sensible precaution. The question is how far can they distort the image before they become annoying to use?

For one reason and another I’ve seen quite a few from Yahoo this week and my current high score is 8 – yes 8 attempts before I got one I could read! Now last I checked I am human but the level of distortion makes them hard to use. Is this really enhancing my experience or just plain annoying me? There is a fine line and making sure you’re on the right side isn’t always easy – Yahoo has stepped over it from where I’m standing.