Brian Mapes
Random thoughts from my insignificant mind

Ticketmaster Cutting the CAPTCHA

For years scalpers have been using bots to quickly purchase tickets before they are sold out. In turn, Ticketmaster and many other sites installed CAPTCHAs to determine if the ticket buyer is a human or a bot. CAPTCHAs can be difficult to decipher even for humans and have been annoying customers for years. Ticketmaster isn’t dropping puzzles altogether but rather moving to easier ones by Solve Media.

I’m assuming they are doing this because of customer feedback. I’m guessing they’ve got enough complaints over the years and they may even believe it’s affecting their bottom line. The customer in me appreciates this change as I no longer have to strain my eyes while translating obscure text.

The developer in me finds it even more interesting. This is a perfect example of UX and it also shows that you don’t always have to redesign an entire form to improve the user’s experience. Just replacing a difficult to solve CAPTCHA with a much simpler puzzle goes a long way.


My name is Brian Mapes. I'm a father, husband, Phillies fan, Eagles fan, comic book lover, software engineer, technology lover, wannabe artist, and former MacRumors mod. These are my random thoughts.