Taylor Swift fans were battling technological issues Tuesday after the pop wonder led them on a virtual Easter egg hunt to uncover her new “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” track names.
Swift confirmed her planned “1989” re-recording while playing in Los Angeles last month, and “Taylor’s Version” would feature previously unheard tracks. Vault tracks have been included as an added bonus for fans who stream and buy her previous re-recording releases.
Swift previously shared vault recordings for “Fearless (Taylor’s Version)” and “Red (Taylor’s Version)” with jumbled letters.
Google revealed on Tuesday that its search engine would generate a series of 89 riddles for fans to solve in order to uncover the titles of the new tunes.
“You’ll be assisting Swifties all over the world in getting out of the woods (or unlocking the vault) as everyone solves 33 million puzzles,” Google added. “And that’s how it works, and how you get the vault track titles!”
On Saturday, several foreign fans spotted a little blue vault appear while Google “Taylor Swift,” increasing suspense as Swifties awaited the disclosure of what the vault represented.
The vault opened to show a scrambled version of Swift’s impending album title, and further riddles would be revealed when players input solutions into the search field.
However, many fans (like this NBC News reporter) believe there is a bug since they hunt for solutions but make no progress.
Some fans were dissatisfied because they couldn’t play or because the game needed a huge number of puzzle completions when it wasn’t operating correctly.
“I feel like Taylor constantly forgets how big she is,” one X, previously known as Twitter, user said. “33 million is a lot when you consider the vault isn’t working.” Google needs to determine who is playing the game and who is actually looking for sunglasses, which is what I believe is causing the problem.”
Another commented, “We’re not going to get 33 million before the album comes out with this stupid vault not working.”
Google rectified the problems in a late Tuesday post on X.
“Swifties, the vault is full!” But don’t worry, there are no empty spots on the inside,” the business added. “We’re in our fix-it era and will be out of the woods soon.”
Swift’s agent did not immediately reply to a request for comment on Tuesday.
Swift captioned a video of a blue vault opening on her Instagram Tuesday afternoon, “You can tell me when the *search* is over… if the high was worth the pain.”
According to Google Trends, searches for “Taylor Swift” jumped following the article and stayed strong for a few hours. Swift’s Google search interest peaked at 3 p.m. Tuesday, two hours following her tweet, before falling somewhat.
“1989 (Taylor’s Version)” is set to be released on October 27, precisely nine years after the original.
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