Taylor Swift enthusiasts found themselves grappling with technical glitches on Tuesday as the renowned pop artist orchestrated a virtual Easter egg hunt to unveil the tracklist for her upcoming release, “1989 (Taylor’s Version).”
Swift had announced the re-recording of her 1989 album last month during a live performance in Los Angeles, with the revelation that “Taylor’s Version” would feature previously unreleased songs. These unreleased tracks, known as “vault songs,” have been a special treat for fans who stream or purchase her re-recorded albums.
In previous instances, Swift had unveiled vault songs for “Fearless (Taylor’s Version)” and “Red (Taylor’s Version)” by sharing videos of scrambled letters.
On Tuesday, Google announced a unique twist to the process, revealing that its search function would present 89 puzzles for fans to solve, ultimately revealing the names of the new songs. Google’s statement explained, “You’ll be helping Swifties around the world get out of the woods (or unlock the vault) as everyone collectively solves 33 million puzzles. And that’s how it works, that’s how you get the vault track titles!”
Some international fans first noticed a mysterious blue vault icon appearing in search results for “Taylor Swift” on Saturday, generating anticipation as Swifties eagerly awaited the vault’s significance.
The puzzle-solving adventure began with the vault revealing a scrambled version of Swift’s forthcoming album name and subsequently unveiling more puzzles as fans submitted answers through the search bar.
However, numerous fans began to suspect a glitch in the system, as they encountered challenges in progressing further after submitting answers. Some expressed frustration over their inability to participate or voiced concerns about the substantial number of puzzle completions required, especially when the game appeared to be malfunctioning.
One fan commented, “I feel like Taylor constantly forgets how big she is. 33 million is a lot when you take into account the vault not working. Google has to process who is playing the game and who is genuinely trying to search for sunglasses which I think is what screws this all up.”
Another fan humorously remarked, “we’re definitely not getting 33m before the album comes out with this stupid vault not working.”
Late Tuesday, Google acknowledged the issues in a post on X (formerly known as Twitter), saying, “Swifties, the vault is jammed! But don’t worry, there are no blank spaces inside. We’re in our fix-it era and will be out of the woods soon.”
As of Tuesday, a representative for Taylor Swift had not provided a response to requests for comment.
Swift herself posted a video clip on Tuesday afternoon depicting a blue vault opening on her Instagram, accompanied by the caption, “You can tell me when the search is over… if the high was worth the pain.”
According to Google Trends data, searches for “Taylor Swift” surged after her Instagram post and remained elevated for several hours. The highest level of interest in Taylor Swift on Google occurred at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, two hours after her post, before experiencing a slight decline.
“1989 (Taylor’s Version)” is slated for release on October 27, marking exactly nine years since the original album’s launch.
