Friends+ Me Google+ Exporter users: Google have deployed CAPTCHAs on G+ traffic
This is so far as I'm aware, a first.
The Friends+Me Google+ Exporter is one of the few tools available which actually produces usable and useful as well as reasonably sized and accessible exports of Google+ content.
That's content Google have promised variously, since 2009, to make available to users in a usable format, and yes, we have Google's own statements to this effect.
Throwing CAPTCHAs at this traffic directly and deliberately prevents users from exporting their content.
Please do not do this.
See post:
https://plus.google.com/+FriendsPlusMe/posts/1Gr4nHAyRR5
Originally shared by Friends+Me
Google deployed Captcha solution that prevents the G+ exporter tool to do its work.
We're working on a solution. Thank you for your patience.
This is so far as I'm aware, a first.
The Friends+Me Google+ Exporter is one of the few tools available which actually produces usable and useful as well as reasonably sized and accessible exports of Google+ content.
That's content Google have promised variously, since 2009, to make available to users in a usable format, and yes, we have Google's own statements to this effect.
Throwing CAPTCHAs at this traffic directly and deliberately prevents users from exporting their content.
Please do not do this.
See post:
https://plus.google.com/+FriendsPlusMe/posts/1Gr4nHAyRR5
Originally shared by Friends+Me
Google deployed Captcha solution that prevents the G+ exporter tool to do its work.
We're working on a solution. Thank you for your patience.
#sub
ReplyDeleteNB: I'd originally posted a quote linking to a comment, decided a post-reshare was more appropriate. I've deleted the other. No, your mind is not playing tricks on you, I am ;-)
ReplyDeleteSounds like someone is removing the archival value of Google+. There is so much history recorded here and it's all just going to go away.
ReplyDeleteI can just imagine how much trouble future historians will have studying this time period because all the original sources will be deleted.
Dang, I held off for too long :s
ReplyDeleteI hope there will be enough time to backup after they fix this, in case they do
We had already been given a January date for some of the APIs to shut down, so I had already assumed that by the end of January that the exporter would stop working for reasons beyond the control of the software authors. However I did not anticipate the API being maintained but Google declaring that use of it was somehow abusive.
ReplyDeleteIt is possible that so many people are suddenly liberating their data that some sort of automated rate-limiting system kicked in.
ReplyDeleteIf you've used Google via TOR, you've probably seen CAPTCHA occasionally, but not always, show up on the search page, even.
Andres Soolo I have had the captcha show up on the search page when I just used Private Browsing in Firefox.
ReplyDeleteWalter Roberson AFAIK this exporter actually does not rely on the use of the APIs, but in stead seems to make use of scraping techniques instead, which is why you actually need to log into your account, rather than grant it an OAuth token.
ReplyDeleteMost websites have something in their Terms of Use that you're not allowed to access their data programmatically/automatically, and/or reuse such data. LinkedIn fortunately lost its court case against hiQ (https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/08/court-rejects-linkedin-claim-that-unauthorized-scraping-is-hacking/), so there might actually be some legal basis that actually allows people to scrape sites, regardless of ToU or robots.txt.
arstechnica.com - Court rejects LinkedIn claim that unauthorized scraping is hacking
Walter Roberson This is not API-driven.
ReplyDeleteI love reading Google+ on a high latency network. Answers appear before you're done reading your own comment.
ReplyDeleteI can report that I upgraded to 1.7.4, after waiting 24 hours since last import attempt. The app launched, detected my account, and I started to refresh my stream. The app got about 500 posts in, and then stopped. I quit the app and restarted. A captcha dialog appeared within the app. I selected "not a robot" and the captcha dialog went away. However, the app failed to detect my account this time, and showed the red suggestion banner. After quitting the app, I logged in here using a browser, and saw the captcha dialog again. I will try again tomorrow.
ReplyDelete