With the next Star Wars movie only weeks away now, some fans of the Force may find themselves absolutely starved for content related to the space opera franchise and unsure of where to turn for the Wookiees, Ewoks, droids, and Hayden Christensens they so desperately need. Google, thankfully, has swooped in to save the day with its ambitious “Awaken The Force Within” campaign, as outlined at Google’s official blog. As Clay Bavor, VP of product management, explains, Google has set up a special page, google.com/starwars, which fans can use as their jumping-off point to the entire rest of the internet. The endeavor seems to be a mixture of cynical brand synergy (the article casually mentions “our friends at Lucasfilm and Disney”) and genuine enthusiasm on the part of Google’s employees, many of whom are real-life Star Wars fanatics. Bavor himself estimates he’s seen the original trilogy “a dozen times” and remarks that Google’s famed campus is regularly populated by “Darth Vaders, dogs dressed like Yoda, and even the occasional stormtrooper.”
From the newly created home page, users with Google accounts can opt for “Light Side” or “Dark Side” experiences. As Bavor explains, “Google apps like Gmail, Google Maps, YouTube, Chrome and many more transform to reflect your path. And that’s just the beginning.” The article teases a virtual reality Millennium Falcon and other “Easter eggs” to surface between now and the date The Force Awakens opens. For all true Star Wars fanatics who want to block out the rest of the world until then, thinking of Star Wars every waking minute of their lives and forsaking all else, Google’s campaign could not have arrived at a better time. For everyone else, it’s kind of a neat time-waster. Hey, the little progress bar at the bottom of this promotional YouTube video glows like a light saber. Imagine that.