HideText Buries Your Text In Image Files

From what I've been told, Google *can* index images of text. They use that to compare the titles of pages in the graphic files of the header to the html title.

GuidoLavitz

I was waiting for a way to speak more freely terrorist plots in forums.

furryfrog

I put in some text and then converted it. Then I clicked on "delete files from server". To check whether they really delete it, I clicked the back button on the browser and clicked on the download link. It now said "thank you for trying..." LOL

ssj4Gogeta

[www.hidetext.net]

Lots of solutions to this problem that don't require you to use someone else's server. [freshmeat.net]

TheFu

gmail isn't immune to spam... sorry guys

slyfoxlp

@AdamSnow: Cryptload even fills captchas for me.

btw, it's a nice app - let's you download from many file sharing sites. You just create a list of downloads, it does all the waiting, etc. and even reboots your router if you have a dynamic IP until you get a new IP (to avoid waiting times) and many other good features. Sorry for going off-topic.

ssj4Gogeta

@ccahill: Spoken like someone who doesn't have a website!

On my business website we put up the main email as an image in an easy to find place. Someone had another email in text in a hidden away place. The image one gets very little spam (the kind where some marketing dude has typed it in because you're his target market), the one that's in text we had to shut down due to thousands of spam emails.

And those of us running a business can't all use gmail...

I hate it when people hide there email in images, if I can't click or at least highlight your email address, I probably won't bother contacting you, i.e. you don't get my business.

Just get Gmail and stop having to worry about spam bots already.

I like that is uses the email logos for the images... saves you the trouble!

@ssj4Gogeta: Ha, that's pretty smart :D

@GuidoLavitz: OCR has been around for ages, but it just isn't practical for spambots.

Evernote can already read text from images... We're screwed!

AdamSnow

This must be at least 4-5 years old. It's still a nice find though, especially if you don't have gmail and are paranoid about spam.

I for one welcome our robot overlord.

Mason Strong

hey misandry,

I took a look at it... there are lots of options depending on where you're putting it. I think in some forums you can post the vb code "[img][www.hidetext.net]]". If not you can save the image thru the download link or going to the .gif link and then attach that file wherever you need it. If its in a plain text forum only, the best you can do is put the link to the image... but i'm not sure how long they keep it on their servers.

I hope that helps

slyfoxlp

maybe i'm being really stupid here, but i can't figure this thing out. i hid the text in the image, now what do i do? how do i get the text out of the image? there really need to be clearer instructions on the site for idiots like myself :)

misandry

@ccahill: I dislike it when people cannot figure out when to use "there" or "their". I agree completely with pcx, when one has their own domain name the power of little tricks like this go a long way to fighting spam.

Oh, don't worry cca, we probably do no not need your business anyway.

@slyfoxlp: Oh you jest good sir. I'm clean...after 2 years.

@arienh4: actually... if OCR wasn't practical for spambots, CAPTCHAs would work really well...

If you're really paranoid, reCAPTCHA has this thing where you can put your email address behind a captcha, like this:
cont...@arienh4.net

@Mason Strong: Hail the overlords! *whispers* The rebellion still starts at 3 right?

@misandry: Erm, you... read it?

@HeHatesThoseCans: I got my own domain, threw Google Apps on it and now I got Gmail directly on my domain. However, if you don't want to/can't get gmail for whatever reason, this is a good solution.

I believe the email image generator was pioneered by Nexodyne: [services.nexodyne.com]

*cough* Should be making use of TTF *cough*
[dmulsa.co.uk]

Piezochem

I may be wrong but this could prove a bit an issue for screen readers of the type used by the blind / visually impaired and so probably wouldn't be suitable for corporate sites concerned about accessibility.

Jon Nettleton

@misandry: You can embed that image on forums instead of using text.

ssj4Gogeta

@slyfoxlp: Not even a single spam landed in my inbox after years of usage. EVERY single spam goes to the spam folder.

ssj4Gogeta

@furryfrog: Good luck with that, Special Agent furryfrog!

orlo

Yeah, there are a lot of sites out there that provide the basic email-to-image conversion service; I used to google and pick one at random every time I needed to post a new address due to staff changes. Lately I've been using [digitalcolony.com]

Ones that will do larger texts, and let you use a permanent link to the image on their system, seem to be less common, though.

rlee

baaaa.... I welcome spam. I like to see how high I can get the number next to my gmail "spam" folder.

j/k of course

@[www.google.com] then have your silly "Outlook" connect to it. Best of both worlds. If there is a best world of outlook.

icantreplyright

So...is this how we can avoid getting disemvoweled?

Not to change the subject, but I thought this problem could be solved simple with URL shortners? Obviously your email address still won't be displayed, but having the shortened url for 'mailto:whoever@there.com' should work to mask the adderss until the bots start unshortening. I know it definitely works the mailto feature just fine.

And this is my question for you knowledgable LH folks, do bots unshorten shrunk URLs yet?

@ssj4Gogeta: The problem is false positives