Have you ever spent time on Google Trends? It’s an oddly fascinating place. It’s basically what it sounds like. Google lets you see what is trending on their search engine. You can see real time searches or look up specific topics. Real time almost always has soccer at the top, which I find interesting, but it’s not what I want to talk about today.
When you do a topic search, it’s amazing how often crossword puzzle clues come up. If I look up Star Wars, I’m likely to see a popular search like, “Chewbacca species.” I always get a little excited, thinking that for some reason, a lot of people are checking out Chewbacca. Then, when I click on it to find out why, I find the words “crossword clue”. It’s not that people are interested in Chewbacca. They’re just trying to solve a puzzle.
I find this odd because it feels like cheating. Isn’t the point of a crossword puzzle to check your knowledge? What fun is it if you just Google the answers? Maybe I’m missing something, but it seems to go against the spirit of the puzzle. Thinking about it makes my puzzler sore.
