// Protect your email address with reCAPTCHA

reCAPTCHA is a well known service and used by many websites. But a little know feature is their email address protection service. Just enter your mail address, click on “Protect It!” and everyone who wants to see your address has to solve a CAPTCHA before it will be shown. You will get a common link1) and HTML source code where only a part of your mail address is replaced:2)

Examples, created with the address foobar@example.com:

  • http://www.google.com/recaptcha/mailhide/d?k=01rhhtdpw4VPtj-ejfKMpwEw==&c=VGXKsGQ8aXgpBQISADqLu1SFbEYkjlSIeDbzeRHbKL4=

    Simply copy & paste the URL or use something like “Click to see my address” when you are able to create links with custom text.

  • foo<a href="http://www.google.com/recaptcha/mailhide/d?k=01rhhtdpw4VPtj-ejfKMpwEw==&amp;c=VGXKsGQ8aXgpBQISADqLu1SFbEYkjlSIeDbzeRHbKL4=" onclick="window.open('http://www.google.com/recaptcha/mailhide/d?k\07501rhhtdpw4VPtj-ejfKMpwEw\75\75\46c\75VGXKsGQ8aXgpBQISADqLu1SFbEYkjlSIeDbzeRHbKL4\075', '', 'toolbar=0,scrollbars=0,location=0,statusbar=0,menubar=0,resizable=0,width=500,height=300'); return false;" title="Reveal this e-mail address">...</a>@example.com

    This will produce something like “foo...@example.com”.

Actually an old hat, but I just saw tons of plain email addresses in a forum. The smarter ones replaced @/. with [a]/[dot]. While this is better then nothing, most bots should be intelligent enough to parse such replacements. reCAPTCHA FTW.

1)
perfect for IM, forums and stuff
2)
perfect for websites and everywhere you are allowed to use (X)HTML
I'm no native speaker (English)
Please let me know if you find any errors (I want to improve my English skills). Thank you!
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