Taylor Swift's devoted fans faced challenges on Tuesday when the popular singer engaged them in a virtual scavenger hunt to unveil the tracklist for her upcoming album "1989 (Taylor's Version)," but were confronted with technical issues.
Last month, Swift had announced her intention to re-record her album "1989," and the "Taylor's Version" would include previously unreleased songs. In her previous re-recordings, she had surprised fans with bonus tracks from her musical vault.
For "Fearless (Taylor’s Version)" and "Red (Taylor’s Version)," Swift had teased the vault tracks by unveiling scrambled letters in a video. Google, on Tuesday, revealed that its search function would generate 89 puzzles for fans to solve, eventually revealing the names of these new songs.
Google stated, "By participating, you'll be aiding Swifties from all over the world in discovering the hidden treasures, as everyone collaboratively tackles 33 million puzzles. That's the process to unveil the vault track titles!"
Some international fans had noticed a small blue vault icon appearing when they searched "Taylor Swift" on Saturday, sparking anticipation among Swifties regarding its significance.
The puzzle began with the vault displaying a jumbled version of Swift's upcoming album title, unveiling additional puzzles as participants entered answers into the search bar.
However, many fans, including an NBC News reporter, were frustrated as they searched for answers with no apparent progress. Some were unable to participate or expressed dissatisfaction with the large number of puzzle completions required, given the technical issues.
One user commented on X (formerly Twitter), "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 user jokingly remarked, "we’re definitely not getting 33 million before the album comes out with this stupid vault not working."
Google acknowledged the issues in a post on X later that Tuesday, 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."
A representative for Taylor Swift did not provide an immediate comment on Tuesday.
On Tuesday afternoon, Swift shared a video on Instagram showing a blue vault opening, captioned with "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 the post and remained elevated for a few hours. Her highest Google search interest on Tuesday occurred at 3 p.m., two hours after her post, before gradually declining.
"1989 (Taylor's Version)" is set to be released on October 27, exactly nine years after the original album's debut.