The white whale of any Star Wars fan—besides my dream Ahsoka Tano video game—is an unmodified release of the original Star Wars trilogy. Forget the special editions, forget the even-specialier editions. Many of us, from film buffs to preservationists to shameless, Prequel-hating nerds, want to see the films as they were originally presented in the ‘70s and ‘80s.
The Game of Thrones Starbucks cup debacle. Watching Notre Dame go up in flames. The moment the world fell in love with Baby Yoda. Going through Google’s top searches of the year feels like flipping through a scrapbook of the internet’s collective obsessions. Released this week, the company’s annual “Year in Search” gives a snapshot of the most impactful celebrities, news, and trends of 2019—at least, in terms of Google searches—and this year’s data illustrates one fact very clearly: In its first full calendar year in America, TikTok has become the new progenitor of memes.
