For Gen Z, TikTok Is the New Search Engine

“In our studies, something like almost 40 percent of young people, when they’re looking for a place for lunch, they don’t go to Google Maps or Search. They go to TikTok or Instagram,” Prabhakar Raghavan, a Google senior vice president, said at a technology conference in July.

…TikTok’s results “don’t seem as biased” as Google’s, she said, adding that she often wants “a different opinion” from what ads and websites optimized for Google say.

Imagine I have a grocery shop in a town with 40k of population, what can I do to attract more people to it using TikTok? Currently I use to spam a text info about new goods in some local FB groups, rarely with photos.

TikTok’s ascent as a search engine may mean that more people stumble upon misinformation and disinformation on the app, which could then be amplified and spread further, said Francesca Tripodi, an information and library science professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The platform has struggled with moderating misleading content about elections, the war in Ukraine and abortion.

TikTok’s algorithm tends to keep people on the app, making it harder for them to turn to additional sources to fact-check searches, Ms. Tripodi added.

“You aren’t really clicking to anything that would lead you out of the app,” she said. “That makes it even more challenging to double-check the information you’re getting is correct.”