TypeRacer

History

TypeRacer was launched by programmer Alex Epshteyn, working on his own, using the OpenSocial API and the Google Web Toolkit. Epshteyn was inspired by teaching himself to touch type with a shareware Windows program that lacked a multiplayer mode. He describes himself as not a hardcore gamer, and had never played other multiplayer typing games such as The Typing of the Dead. He has, however, since been contacted by a former Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing engineer, who expressed approval of TypeRacer. Epshteyn holds a Master's degree in Computer Science from UMass Amherst and was an intern at Google in 2005.

TypeRacer was listed among PC Magazine's Top 100 Undiscovered Web Sites of 2008.

Overview

Site users compete by racing miniature cars that advance as the users type short passages that are 20 to 100 words long. Accuracy is required; any typing errors in words have to be fixed before continuing with the race. The typing passages come from popular songs, films and books, such as Monty Python and the Holy Grail, A Clockwork Orange, and Stephen Colbert's I Am America (And So Can You!), and can be contributed by users. Some users that achieve typing speeds over 200 wpm have been suspected of being robots, or otherwise cheating, which TypeRacer has taken repeated measures to restrict. The protection is requiring users that get over 100 wpm in a race to do a CAPTCHA. If they pass, then they have to perform a score that is 25% higher than the attained CAPTCHA speed to activate the CAPTCHA test once more.