The most expensive and annoying invention of the www, at least since each one has the impression “to have one makes a site secure”???
A litte estimation of wasted world-wide efford within one hour only:
f(x) = t * n * x
x := number of access to pages
n := number of ordeal, the number of reCAPTHAS you have to answer on each
t := average time to answer one reCAPTCHA
this makes worldwide e.g. for 1h of worldwide access
x := 1.000.000 pages accessed by all users within one hour
n := 3 average number of captchas to answer
t := 5sec average time for each
f(1.000.000) = 3 * 5 * 1.000.000 = 15.000.000 sec = 4.167h
So within one hour in average 4167 hours of effort in total are just wasted!!!
And it even does not help at all for what it was foreseen!!!
The invention of a genius, of course.