TikTok testing Google Search integration
App researcher Radu Oncescu has discovered that TikTok is testing a feature that incorporates Google Search into its in-app search results.
Oncescu posted an image of the feature that shows a small box halfway down TikTok’s search results that prompts users to search for the same terms on Google Search.
A TikTok spokesperson confirmed to Business Insider that the Google integration is one of several third-party integrations that the company is testing.
Earlier in September, The Verge reported that TikTok is adding Wikipedia snippets to search results on the platform.
#TikTokSearch now displaying external links to Google Search. @MattNavarra pic.twitter.com/cAxNufLA3p
— Radu Oncescu (@oncescuradu) September 19, 2023
Wikipedia snippets spotted on TikTok appeared within search results for The New York Times, Taylor Swift, and Thanksgiving, among others.
TikTok’s integration with third-party platforms comes at an interesting time, with young users that would have previously used Google Search now favouring TikTok and Instagram to search the Internet.
“We keep learning, over and over again, that new internet users don’t have the expectations and the mindset that we have become accustomed to,” TechCrunch quoted Prabhakar Raghavan, senior vice president at Google, as saying last year.
“In our studies, something like almost 40% of young people, when they’re looking for a place for lunch, they don’t go to Google Maps or Search.”
Loading ...