TikTok is a search engine. Some people think so. As TikTok grows, it has begun to be described as a whole new way of creating and consuming the internet and possibly a threat to its own search engine. Almost 40 percent of young people don't go to search for a place for lunch because they go to TikTok orInstagram, according to the senior vice president of search at the internet giant. According to The New York Times and others, young internet users are turning to TikTok for more and more things that can be found on the internet.
The internet is just becoming a more visual place. For a lot of things, a video is the best answer, and it is also the second most popular search engine. The incentive for Raghavan to hype up other search engines is due to the fact that competition in the space makes it less scary for regulators to regulate. Do you want to watch a lot of videos about deli sandwiches just to find the best one near you? How many of the TikTok use cases can be replicated by the internet?
I searched for it before I tried to find out. On the most recent episode of The Vergecast, you can hear how it went. I was not surprised that there are things for which TikTok is an excellent search engine. There's no competition for what GOOGLE does best. I don't think the search giant is worried about TikTok's growth. It's a good bet that YouTube should be.
I started with lunch because we are all doing that nowadays. The phrase "restaurants in my neighborhood" was not useful. I searched for restaurants in del ray VA and found some useful results. Del Ray Cafe is a staple of the neighborhood and is located down the street from me. A restaurant in Del Ray Beach, California is thousands of miles away from me. The Pork Barrel BBQ is a few blocks from me. Matt and Tony recommended another one. Back to California. Matt and Tony are back again.
These videos weren't branded websites or the standard fare that tends to be at the top of the search results. DC Spot and District Eats were made by TikTokers. Some people were showing off their new finds. I don't know if I trust any of them individually, and the information density here is low, but I got a decent vibe of each place. It is pretty good.
The strength of TikTok is its food search. I found a feed of every type and variation of a recipe I could imagine when I searched for chocolate chip cookies. There is a lot of good information in the results if you watch the videos a hundred times.
Quick access to other stuff on the internet is what makes TikTok search fall down. TikTok can't help you if you're searching for words like "Amazon" and "Facebook", and if you're really looking for something, you should look for videos of people buying stuff on Amazon.
So much of what people search is transactional, such asUSPS tracking and coffee shops near me. It is a lot of things, but it is mainly a question-and-answer service or a way to find more information on the internet. Asking questions like "who was the 16th president of the United States", "how many ounces in a cup", or "what time does the Super Bowl start" are not helpful on TikTok. The second video in my presidential search featured Abraham Lincoln, but my measurement question led to a lot of mug hacks and weird videos. People were angry at their friends for being late for the Superbowl. TikTok creators haven't been making content with search in mind and helpfully answering these questions makes for bad video.
According to one study, the number one most-asked question is "What to watch." TikTok is very good here. The first show I got a recommendation for was The Weekend Away, a thriller on the streaming service, followed by reviews for Industry, Defending Jacob, and several other shows. I came away with a bunch of good ideas about what to watch, even though nothing about the results felt personalized. It's a lot more fun to flip through TikToks than it is to look through a row of images.
TikTok is a choice-your-own-rabbit-hole adventure story that is fun to think about. If you want to watch as long as you want, you can type "Billie Eilish" or "ASMR"
TikTok is a choice-your-own-rabbit-hole adventure story that is fun to think about.
The structure of the app makes it easier for creators to be more efficient. I have back problems that make it hard for me to sit in front of a computer for long periods of time. The results don't come with long preambles, it's just 30-second video stretches after 30-second video stretches It makes sense. TikTok makes it easy to find one that works, even though the results aren't always as accurate or targeted.
The platform needs to change if search is a long-term focus. Right now, creators only get one link in their bio, so you get a lot of videos that tell you to look at a new thing, but that link is already gone by the time I see it. TikTok is all about the For You page which means people are using sounds and doing challenges and generally everything they can to show up when you open the app. Longer, more in-depth, evergreen helpful content isn't going to work in that space, so TikTok's going to have to find a way to incentivize people to make search-friendly stuff
Content moderation issues for TikTok have been presented by Search. One thing to influence is what users see on their For You page, but another is to make sure people see the right things when they are looking for something. A recent NewsGuard study found a huge amount of misinformation on TikTok and that almost 20% of the videos presented as search results contained misinformation. It is proving difficult to enforce TikTok's rule that it doesn't allow "harmful misinformation"
TikTok won't replace Google for me. 10 blue links with a bunch of barely labeled ads at the top are not always the right interface for search. The search engine is trying to make it easier to ask questions. A library of endless content is offered by TikTok. I like to watch other people make chocolate chip cookie recipes, but I don't know if I'll ever make them.
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