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Google has long been the king of internet searches, but the company has been facing some major competition from a surprising source. TikTok, the massive video-sharing platform has been a thorn in Google’s side in recent years. Well, according to 9To5Google, TikTok is planning on implementing Google search.
Google earns a ton of money from displaying ads on its search page. This is why the company is feeling the effects of TikTok being a go-to search engine. It’s not as much of an issue with older users. However, those in Gen Z and younger use TikTok as their primary search engine. This, coupled with the threat of ChatGPT, has been causing Google some trouble.
TikTok could implement Google search
Twitter user Onescu made a post to the platform showing a screenshot of TikTok. In the screenshot, we see some search results on TikTok. At the top, we see native TikTok search results, but under them, we see a button asking the user to search for the same query on Google.
In another screenshot, we see a disclaimer posted by TikTok. It reads “TikTok does not endorse or take responsibility for search results from Google.” This is a way of letting people know that whatever they stumble across is all from Google. So, if they happen to find any harmful content through the search, Google is the one liable, not TikTok.
#TikTokSearch now displaying external links to Google Search. @MattNavarra pic.twitter.com/cAxNufLA3p
— Radu Oncescu (@oncescuradu) September 19, 2023
We’re not sure if this was a decision by TikTok or by Google. It seems likely that it’s the latter’s. TikTok’s popularity is only growing, so more people are going to be using it to search. Rather than combatting the app, it might just be better to partner with it.
At this point, we’re still in the dark about some details. TikTok confirmed that it’s testing this out in some markets. We don’t know what those markets are. We’ll need to see as this feature develops.