AI See What You Did There: Catching Bots Red-Handed

You might've spotted a weird anime character when visiting Booko lately. She's our new bouncer, keeping out the bad bots.

What's happening? The internet's always been a bit wild, but AI has unleashed a tsunami of antisocial bots. Unlike polite bots that follow the rules, these new ones pretend to be regular people – thousands of them at once. They're crashing the party and making Booko slow for everyone.

Why it matters: When these bots flood Booko, they don't just slow things down for you. They also mess with our ability to check prices from other websites (which is literally what Booko does!).

Our solution: That anime character makes your browser solve a quick math puzzle before entering. Real browsers? No sweat – takes a couple of seconds. Bot farms? They either can't do it or it slows them to a crawl.

It's like those "I'm not a robot" checkboxes, but with more maths and anime flair. One day we'll make this invisible, but for now, she's keeping the riffraff out so you can find your book deals in peace.

You can read more about this system, called Anubis. We love hearing from Booko users, so if you have any feedback or just want to say hi, just hit reply.